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LIBRARY 


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University  of  California 

THE    MARY    JUCKSCH     FUND 

Class 


&J3JS]-HismrsT&isisisjsf, 


"P-iSfsisrsisj 


ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

AND    HIS   TIMES 

A   HISTORICAL   SKETCH   OF  THE    STATE    OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA 

IN  THE    FIRST    FIVE  DECADES  OF  THE   CONSTITUTION 

AND   THE   POLITICAL    INFLUENCE    OF   THE   STATE 

ON  THE   UNION   IN  THAT   PERIOD 


'J&&& 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    ■    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA   •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


1791  — ROBERT  YOUNG  HAYNE  — 1839. 

By  Samuel  Finley  Breese  Morse,  1820. 

From  the  original  portrait  in  possession  of  Mrs.  William  Alston  Hayne,  San  Francisco,  Cal 


ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

AND   HIS   TIMES 


BY 


THEODORE   D.  JERVEY 

SECOND   VICE-PRESIDENT   OF   THE   SOUTH    CAROLINA   HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY,   AUTHOR   OF   "THE   ELDER    BROTHER,"   A   NOVEL 

OF   SOUTH    CAROLINA,    RECONSTRUCTED 


"  I  can  well  recollect,  Sir,  that  among  the  first  lessons  instilled 
into  my  mind,  that  which  made  the  deepest  and  most  lasting 
impression  was  to  consider  the  Republican  Institutions  of  my 
country  like  the  air  which  we  breathe,  as  bestowing  life  and  health 
and  happiness,  without  our  being  conscious  of  the  means  by 
which  those  inestimable  gifts  are  conferred ;  like  the  Providence 
of  God  unfelt  and  unseen,  yet  dispensing  the  richest  blessings  to 
all  the  children  of  men."  — Hayne,  1824. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


Nefo  gotfc 
THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1909 

All  rights  reserved 


em 


JUCKSCH 


Copyright,  1909, 
By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY, 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  May,  1909. 


Norfaaoti  $wgg 

J.  8.  Cushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


€0 

ALL   SOUTH    CAROLINIANS 

WHATEVER   THEIR    DIFFERENCES 

WHO  HAVE  BRAVELY   STRIVEN  FOR  THEIR  CONVICTIONS 

THIS   BOOK 

IS    DEDICATED 


184573 


PREFACE 

In  presenting  to  the  public  a  life  of  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  a  word 
of  explanation  seems  appropriate.  Few,  if  any,  of  the  public 
men  of  the  United  States  have  been  so  neglected  by  students 
of  history ;  and  it  is  astonishing  to  note  how  many  writers,  some 
of  whom  are  otherwise  quite  careful,  have  been  guilty  of  repeat- 
ing the  statement  that,  save  for  the  fact  that  on  the  floor  of  the 
United  States  Senate  he  drew  from  Daniel  Webster  his  greatest 
oratorial  effort,  Hayne  would  not  be  known  to  our  national 
history.  Yet  it  is  undeniable  that,  within  five  months  of  his 
connection  with  that  distinguished  body,  the  senator  from  South 
Carolina  was  the  undisputed  leader  of  his  faction.  This  posi- 
tion he  held  throughout  the  constantly  recurring  struggle  which 
culminated  in  the  great  crisis,  nullification.  During  this  period 
Mahlon  Dickerson  gave  way  to  Webster,  and  Webster  in  turn 
to  Clay,  as  the  leader  of  the  opposing  faction,  the  Protectionists. 

Of  the  carelessness  which  has  in  great  measure  brought  about 
the  low  estimate  of  Hayne,  evidence  is  found  in  allusions  to  the 
South  Carolinian  in  recent  works.  For  example,  in  one  history 
of  the  United  States  which  on  the  whole  deserves  praise  for  its 
fairness  and  liberality,  we  find  the  statement,  "  Senator  Hayne 
was  a  man  of  finished  education."  The  facts  are  that  he  never 
received  any  college  instruction,  was  forced  by  his  necessities 
to  prepare  himself  for,  and  to  apply  for  admission  to,  the  bar 
before  he  had  attained  his  majority,  and  was  in  possession  of  a 
lucrative  practice  at  an  age  when  most  men  who  enjoy  the 
opportunity  are  still  in  college. 


viii  PREFACE 

Another  writer  asserts  that  in  the  Great  Debate,  "Senator 
Hayne  —  whose  speeches  were  not  remarkable  —  was  put  for- 
ward to  deliver  the  prologue,  but  Calhoun  was  the  prompter 
behind  the  scenes."  No  authority  is  cited  for  this  assertion. 
It  is  made,  moreover,  in  spite  of  the  fact,  easily  ascertainable, 
that  in  the  first  and  greatest  argument  ever  made  by  Calhoun 
for  nullification,  and  published  but  little  more  than  a  year  after 
the  debate,  one  of  Hayne's  main  contentions  is  flatly  contra- 
dicted. If  Webster  considered  the  contention  untenable,  an 
even  greater  opponent  of  nullification,  Edward  Livingston, 
declared  that  it  was  unassailable. 

Of  course  there  are  some  writers  who  have  treated  him  more 
fairly.  Cicero  W.  Harris  pays  a  fine  tribute  to  the  South  Caro- 
linian in  his  "Sectional  Struggle,"  and  Woodrow  Wilson  in  his 
"  Division  and  Reunion  "  accords  juster  treatment  than  is  usually 
rendered  to  him  in  the  Great  Debate ;  while  Meigs,  in  a  later 
and  more  careful  life  of  Benton  than  that  which  appears  in  the 
"  American  Statesmen  "  series,  if  he  singles  Hayne  out  for  no 
especial  eulogium,  at  least  exhibits  some  discrimination  in  his 
comments  and  refrains  from  belittling  references.  Yet  the 
usual  estimate  of  the  man  can  only  be  described  as  slighting; 
and  so  distinctly  has  this  impressed  itself  upon  me  that  I  have 
attempted  to  comply  with  the  suggestion  that  I  should  prepare 
a  sketch  of  Hayne's  life. 

In  arriving  at  conclusions,  it  has  been  my  aim  to  be  influ- 
enced as  little  as  possible  by  commentators,  but  to  leave  the 
reader  to  form  his  own  opinion  from  the  facts.  The  occasional 
discovery  that  my  own  estimate  of  any  matter  was  in  accord 
with  that  of  eminent  individuals  was  of  course  most  pleasing, 
and  in  no  case  more  so  than  in  the  characterization  of  Hayne's 
great  speech  on  the  tariff  of  1824  in  the  "  Life  of  Martin  Van 
Buren,"  by  Edward  M.  Shepard  of  the  New  York  Bar. 

In  the  endeavor  to  picture  the  man,  I  have  deemed  it  essen- 


PREFACE  ix 

tial  to  portray,  as  far  as  lay  in  my  power,  Hayne's  environment. 
Through  patient  search,  I  believe  that  I  have  gathered  some 
incidents  of  his  life  and  facts  relating  to  the  South  Carolina  of 
his  day  which  are  not  generally  known.  That  the  work  is 
imperfect  is  quite  patent  to  me ;  but,  imperfect  as  it  is,  it  is  my 
hope  that  it  may  lead  to  a  more  careful  consideration  of  the 
lofty  aspirations,  the  notable  achievements,  and  the  profound 
wisdom  of  a  statesman  long  neglected,  the  purity  and  self- 
abnegation  of  whose  life  has  never  been  surpassed  in  our 
history,  and  the  grasp  of  whose  intellect  on  some  questions  still 
before  us  reached  a  depth  we  are  not  yet  capable  of  accurately 
fathoming. 

In  the  prosecution  of  this  attempt,  one  of  my  chief  difficulties 
has  been  due  to  the  loss  of  the  bulk  of  Hayne's  papers  and 
correspondence  in  the  period  immediately  following  the  Civil 
War.  Through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  John  Taylor  of  Colum- 
bia, S.C.,  however,  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  examining  a 
few  letters  to  him  which  are  still  preserved.  While  I  have 
drawn  upon  standard  works  for  occasional  extracts,  I  have 
endeavored  as  far  as  possible  to  reach  original  sources.  In  the 
main,  although  greatly  assisted  by  the  correspondence  of  Cal- 
houn, edited  by  Dr.  Jameson,  and  the  abridgment  of  the 
Debates  of  Congress,  my  work  rests  on  the  very  complete  files 
of  the  press  of  South  Carolina  for  this  period. 

To  Miss  Ellen  FitzSimons,  the  librarian  of  the  Charleston 
Library,  and  to  Professor  Nathaniel  W.  Stephenson,  of  the 
College  of  Charleston,  I  am  grateful  for  helpful  assistance  and 
encouragement.  For  the  portrait  of  Hayne  by  Morse,  which 
appeared  as  an  illustration  for  the  first  time  in  Elson's  "  History 
of  the  United  States,"  I  am  indebted  to  the  widow  of  Senator 
Hayne's  son,  William  Alston  Hayne.  A  photograph  from  the 
painting  in  her  possession  was  obtained  through  the  kindness 
of  Miss  Susan  Pringle  of  Charleston,  who  has  also  assisted  me 


x  PREFACE 

in  other  ways.  From  the  widow  of  Judge  Robert  Y.  Hayne 
of  California  I  received  one  of  the  few  letters  of  the  statesman 
I  have  been  able  to  obtain.  Such  others  as  I  have  used,  I  have 
been  able  to  examine  through  the  assistance  of  Messrs.  Langdon 
Cheves  and  Gustavus  M.  Pinckney,  with  Mrs.  St.  Julien  Ravenel 
of  Charleston,  and  Professors  Yates  Snowden  and  T.  W.  Keitt 
of  the  University  of  South  Carolina  and  Clemson  College.  To 
Miss  Mary  Conner  and  Miss  Ellen  H.  Jervey  I  owe  letters 
illustrative  of  the  times.  The  late  William  A.  Courtenay,  the 
Hons.  Joseph  W.  Barnwell  and  Augustine  T.  Smythe,  and 
Messrs.  J.  P.  Carson  of  Charleston,  A.  S.  Salley,  Jr.,  of  Colum- 
bia, S.C.,  Brewton  Hamilton  of  Fall  River,  Mass.,  Charles 
Henry  Hart  of  Philadelphia,  W.  H.  Hayne  of  Augusta,  Ga., 
and  Senator  B.  R.  Tillman  have  also  furnished  me  with  pam- 
phlets and  portraits  which  have  been  most  helpful. 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTORY 

PAGE 

The  year  1791  a  memorable  year —  Abolition  of  rights  of  primogeniture 
—  Washington  visits  South  Carolina  —  Views  of  opposition  to  ratifi- 
cation of  Federal  Constitution  disclosed  in  verse  —  Influence  of 
Charles  Pinckney  on  State  and  nation I 

BOOK   I 

PREPARATION 
CHAPTER   I 

Robert  Y.   Hayne's  parentage,  birth  and  early  years  —  The  politics  of 

Charleston  at  that  period 15 

CHAPTER   II 
The  genesis  of  nullification    .  32 

CHAPTER   III 

Condition  of  State  and  Federal  Union  during  the  War  of  181 2  —  Hayne's 
admission  to  the  bar  —  His  marriage  a  year  later  at  twenty-two  — 
The  greatest  man  in  the  House  of  Representatives  ...       46 

CHAPTER   IV 

Hayne's  oration  before  the  "  ^6  "  society  and  the  beginning  of  his  politi- 
cal career 54 

CHAPTER   V 

After  the  War  of  181 2  —  Condition  of  the  State  and  nation  —  Status  of 

the  free  colored  people  in  the  South        ......       66 

xi 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VI 

PAGE 

Hayne  as  Attorney-General  —  Letters  to  Cheves  —  Republican  party  in 

nation  broken  into  factions  —  Conditions  in  South  Carolina     .         .       82 

CHAPTER   VII 
Judge  Nott's  opinion  on  nullification 93 

CHAPTER   VIII 
The  rise  of  the  negro  question  and  its  corollary,  the  tariff       ...       99 

CHAPTER   IX 
The  Charleston  memorial  against  the  tariff     ......     106 

CHAPTER   X 

A  consideration  of  the  tone  of  public  opinion  and  interest  in  industrial 

enterprise,  North  and  South,  in  182 1        .         .         .         .         .         .114 

CHAPTER   XI 

Lowndes  nominated  for  the  Presidency  by  the  Legislature  of  South  Car- 
olina       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .125 

CHAPTER   XII 
Denmark  Vesey's  insurrection 130 

CHAPTER   XIII 
Hayne's  election  to  the  United  States  Senate  .....     137 

BOOK    II 

THE  APPEAL  TO  REASON 

CHAPTER  I 

Hayne's  entrance  into  the  United  States  Senate —  His  portrait  by  Ben- 
ton—  His  influence  from  the  outset  ......      149 


CONTENTS  xiii 


CHAPTER   II 

PAGE 

Hayne's  great  speech  against  the  tariff  of  1824 158 

CHAPTER   III 

Hayne's  controversy  with  Ex-Senator  Smith  —  The  latter's  war  on  Cal- 
houn—  Calhoun's  abandonment  of  his  canvass  for  the  Presidency  .     168 

CHAPTER   IV 

The  controversy  over  Canning's  protest  concerning  South  Carolina's 
legislation  with  regard  to  negroes  entering  her  ports  —  Hayne's  opin- 
ion as  to  the  tone  of  the  Legislature  — The  resolution  of  Senator  King 
of  New  York  —  Hayne's  reply  .         .         .         .         .         .         .178 

CHAPTER   V 

The  struggle  between  Calhoun  and  Smith  for  control  of  the  State  — 

Hayne's  speech  against  the  Panama  mission    .         .         .         .         .186 

CHAPTER   VI 

A  glimpse  of  society  at  the  federal  capital  and  at  Charleston  in  the  twen- 
ties —  Charitable,  educational,  religious  and  industrial  conditions  at 
the  latter  place 194 

CHAPTER   VII 
Hayne's  remarkable  speech  against  the  Colonization  Society  .         .     202 

CHAPTER   VIII 

Calhoun  foresees  trouble  —  Webster  enters  the  Senate  —  Boston  con- 
fides her  memorial  against  higher  duties  to  Hayne  —  The  Charleston- 
Hamburg  Railroad  begun  —  "  The  damned  tariff  and  our  friend 

J- Q-" 211 

CHAPTER   IX 

The  temper  of  South  Carolina  in  1828  —  Hayne  reelected  by  unanimous 

vote  to  the  Senate  —  His  first  clash  with  Webster  ....     220 


xiv  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  X 

PAGE 

"Our  friend  J.  Q."  —  His  varying  views  on  various  subjects  —  His  esti- 
mate of  Webster  and  of  Hayne  and  of  the  great  debate    .         .         .     227 

CHAPTER  XI 
Hayne's  speech  on  the  public  lands  —  Webster's  assault  upon  Hayne      .     235 

CHAPTER   XII 
Hayne's  reply  to  Webster 241 

CHAPTER  XIII 
Webster's  rejoinder  to  the  reply 253 

CHAPTER   XIV 
The  debate  closed  and  the  record  set  straight 260 

CHAPTER  XV 

Some  Northern  estimates  of  Hayne  —  Charleston's  appreciation  of  Web- 
ster—  The  mechanics  of  Charleston  —  Their  belief  in  the  Union  as 
well  as  the  locomotive 268 

CHAPTER   XVI 
D.  E.  Huger  defeats  the  attempt  to  nullify  in  1830  .         .         .         .     278 

CHAPTER  XVII 

The  breach  between  Calhoun  and  Jackson  —  McDuffie  precipitates  nullifi- 
cation against  the  approval  of  Calhoun  —  Hayne  expounds  its  prac- 
ticability from  its  previous  use  —  Calhoun's  logical  exposition  — 
Sumter's  solemn  appeal  .........     286 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

The  struggle  for  control  of  South  Carolina  —  The  last  appeal  to  reason 

at  Washington 297 


CONTENTS  xv 


CHAPTER   XIX 

PAGE 

Clay  threatens  South  Carolina  in  his  reply  —  Hayne's  error  in  supporting 
Clay,  Webster  and  Calhoun  in  their  opposition  to  Van  Buren's  ap- 
pointment—  He  supports  Benton  in  sustaining  Jackson's  veto  of 
the  bank  bill  against  Clay  and  Webster 312 


BOOK   III 

THE   APPEAL  TO   FORCE 

CHAPTER   I 

The     nullification    convention  —  Henry     Middleton's     point — Hayne 

elected  Governor,  Floyd  for  President  —  Hayne's  inaugural     .         .     317 

CHAPTER   II 

Calhoun  succeeds  Hayne  in  the  Senate  —  The  President's  Proclamation 
—  Its  force  as  estimated  by  the  Legislature  of  South  Carolina  —  John 
Quincy  Adams's  opinion  of  it  and  of  Hayne's  reply  .         .         .     327 

CHAPTER    III 


Hayne's  defiant  reply  to  the  President's  Proclamation  and  why  it  contained 
some  bitter  words 

CHAPTER   IV 


CHAPTER  VI 


335 


The  attitude  of  the  South  Carolina  Legislature  with  regard  to  the  Proc- 
lamation —  The  interposition  of  Virginia  —  Calhoun's  confidence    .     341 

CHAPTER  V 

The  debate  on  Clay's  Compromise  bill  on  the  tariff  and  Wilkins's  Revenue 
collection  bill  —  South  Carolina  accepts  the  first  and  nullifies  the 
second 


347 


Charleston,  as  she  appeared  in  the  light  of  the  nullification  ball  and  the 

Hamburg  Railroad  in  1833  — Political  comment  North    .         .         .356 


xvi  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  VII 

PAGE 

Hayne's  character  as  evinced  by  his  declarations  —  His  temperament  as 
contrasted  with  that  of  Calhoun  —  The  contemplated  route  of  the 
railroad  to  the  West  in  1833 364 

CHAPTER   VIII 

The  spirit  of  intolerance  cropping  out  —  The  progress  of  the  railroad  — 
The  test  oath  and  Hayne's  tactful  influence  —  Nullifiers  and  Unionists 
come  together 373 


BOOK    IV 

THE  APPEAL  TO  INTEREST 

CHAPTER   I 

The  Louisville,  Cincinnati  and  Charleston  Railroad  —  Hayne's  deep  in- 
terest in  it  as  a  means  of  preserving  the  Union  —  Calhoun's  attempt 
to  divert  the  route 383 

CHAPTER   II 

The  political  possibilities  of  the  great  Western  Railroad  in  the  light  of 
abolition  agitation  —  The  revolt  of  H.  L.  Pinckney  from  the  domina- 
tion of  Calhoun  over  the  South  Carolina  delegation  in  Congress  — 
The  Knoxville  convention  —  Hayne  made  president         .         .         .     393 

CHAPTER    III 

Pinckney's  defeat  —  Calhoun's  new  route  —  Small  amount  of  subscrip- 
tions outside  of  South  Carolina  —  McDuffie's  powerful  criticism  — 
How  it  was  met —  The  vote  of  the  State  for  President  of  the  United 
States 404 

CHAPTER   IV 

Memminger  secures  the  acceptance  by  North  Carolina  of  the  amended 
charter  for  the  road — Anonymous  attack  on  road  in  Mercury  — 
Hayne's  reply  —  Suspension  of  specie  payments  by  Northern  banks 
—  Action  of  Charleston  banks 417 


CONTENTS  xvii 


CHAPTER  V 

PAGB 

Meeting  at  Charleston  to  denounce  banks  captured  by  opponents  — 
Reverend  Fiske  threatens  bloodshed  if  Hayne  presides  —  Hayne 
presides  and  Fiske  is  struck  —  Ex-Governor  Wilson  and  Waddy 
Thompson  criticise  the  chairman  —  Hayne's  term  as  mayor  ends 
successfully  —  Division  in  Congressional  delegation  from  South 
Carolina  —  Petigru  a  false  prophet 430 

CHAPTER   VI 

Hayne's  argument  in  behalf  of  the  French  Broad  route  —  His  reception 
in  Tennessee  and  his  last  meeting  with  Jackson —  South  Carolina 
Legislature  supports  Calhoun's  attitude  on  divorce  of  bank  and 
State,  but  lends  credit  of  State  to  road,  on  Hayne's  appeal       .         .     441 

CHAPTER    VII 

R.  Barnwell  Rhett's  remarkable  resolution  concerning  abolition  —  Cal- 
houn not  ready  for  it  —  Hayne's  wonderfully  clear  appreciation  of 
Southern  industrial  conditions 451 

CHAPTER   VIII 

Hamilton's  revolt  —  Calhoun  consults  with  Van  Buren's  Secretary  of 
War  as  to  the  overthrow  of  Thompson  and  Legare  —  The  quarrel 
between  Calhoun  and  Thompson 461 

CHAPTER  IX 

Calhoun  resigns  from  the  directorship  of  the  Louisville,  Charleston  and 
Cincinnati  Railroad  —  His  two  letters  considered  —  Hayne's  letter, 
which  intervened .         .         .     471 

CHAPTER  X 

Judge  King's  letter  on  the  bank  elections  —  The  estimate  of  Hayne  and 
the  Western  Road  at  this  time  in  Virginia  —  Hayne's  letter  concern- 
ing the  vote  to  reject  the  nomination  of  Van  Buren  as  Minister  to 
England  —  His  powerful  influence  with  the  South  Carolina  Legisla- 
ture          489 


xviii  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  XI 

PAGE 

Industrial  conditions  in  South  Carolina  in  1839  —  Import  and  export 
trade,  North  and  South  —  South  Carolina  as  viewed  by  her  own 
press  —  The  slave  trade 499 

CHAPTER   XII 

The  last  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of  the  Louisville,  Cincinnati  and 
Charleston  Railroad  which  Hayne  attended  —  The  contest  at  the 
meeting 505 

CHAPTER  XIII 
Hayne's  death  and  the  comments  of  his  contemporaries  thereon     .  515 

CHAPTER   XIV 

The  short-lived  resurrection  of  the  original  scheme  of  the  road  —  Cling- 
man's  powerful  speech  in  vindication  of  Hayne  and  Blanding  —  One 
year  more  before  the  collapse  —  The  project  critically  considered     .     525 

Index 537 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

Robert  Young  Hayne  (1791-1839) Frontispiece 

By  Samuel  Finley  Breese  Morse,  1 820.  From  the  original 
portrait  in  possession  of  Mrs.  William  Alston  Hayne, 
San  Francisco,  Cal. 

OPPOSITE  PAGE 

Charles  Pinckney 2I 

Langdon  Cheves  (1819) 85 

William  Smith x49 

James  Hamilton,  Jr.  (1832) 2>l7 

Robert  Y.  Hayne  (Valentine's  Bust)          .        .        .  •       .         •         •  383 


xix 


INTRODUCTORY 

The  year  1791  should  be  a  memorable  year  in  the  history  of 
the  State  of  South  Carolina :  first,  because,  at  the  very  beginning 
of  that  year,  viz.,  the  19th  of  February,  was  enacted  the  law  for 
the  abolition  of  the  rights  of  primogeniture,1  a  statute  marking 
the  profound  change  which  had  taken  place  in  the  State,  with  the 
adoption  of  the  new  State  Constitution  of  the  previous  year; 
second,  because  of  the  fact  that  in  that  year,  in  the  month  of  May, 
the  first  and  greatest  of  the  Presidents  of  the  Union  visited  the  State, 
and  the  story  of  his  reception,2  bringing  before  us,  as  it  does,  the 
condition  and  the  sentiments  of  the  people  of  her  metropolis,  in- 
dicates, in  some  manner,  what  contribution  she  had  made  to  the 
Federal  Union  by  her  ratification  of  the  Federal  Constitution, 
which  she  had  had  such  an  important  part  in  framing;  third,  on 
account  of  the  fact  that  in  the  fall  of  that  year,  November  io,3 
was  born  that  South  Carolinian  who  most  clearly  saw  the  im- 
pending conflict  between  the  State  and  Federal  sovereignties, 
and  most  intelligently  strove  to  avert  it. 

It  is  an  interesting  coincidence  that  the  act  for  the  abolition  of 
the  rights  of  primogeniture  was,  by  its  terms,  to  go  into  effect 
only  the  day  before  the  great  President  reached  the  city  of  Charles- 
ton. It  had  been  passed  in  obedience  to  the  tenth  article  of  the 
State  Constitution,  ordained  the  third  day  of  June,  1790,  the  sug- 

1  Statutes  at  Large,  So.  Ca.,  Vol.  5,  p.  162. 

2  Charleston  Year  Book,  1883,  p.  503. 

3  So.  Ca.  Hist.  &  Gen.  Mag.,  Vol.  5,  p.  171. 


2  INTRODUCTORY 

gestion  of  the  young  Governor,  Charles  Pinckney,  as  the  surest 
safeguard  of  Republican  sentiment.  From  this,  it  may  be  fairly 
inferred  that,  even  after  the  achievement  of  her  independence  and 
the  election  of  her  own  Executive,  up  to  1789,  the  political  senti- 
ment of  the  State,  as  it  found  expression  in  the  choice  of  officials 
and  framing  of  law,  was  in  the  main  Federalistic  and  aristocratic ; 
and,  probably,  no  influence  exerted  by  any  individuals  had  been 
more  effective  in  holding  her  to  that  faith  than  that  of  the  two 
illustrious  Pinckney  brothers,  Charles  Cotesworth  and  Thomas, 
both  of  the  school  of  Washington  and  Hamilton,  —  Charles  Cotes- 
worth, one  of  the  State's  five  deputies  to  the  convention,  which 
framed  the  Constitution  of  the  Union,  and  Thomas,  Governor  of 
the  State,  at  the  time  of  the  selection  of  these  deputies  and  the 
empowering  of  such  to  act. 

But  as  influential  as  these  two  brothers  were,  the  Pinckney 
family  had  produced,  in  the  person  of  another  and  younger  member, 
the  Charles  first  above  alluded  to,  one  whose  influence  on  the 
history  of  the  State  and  nation  was  even  greater. 

Captured  by  the  British  at  the  fall  of  Charleston,  then  a  member 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  South  Carolina,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-two  his  recognized  attainments *  suggested  him  to  his 
fellows  as  best  suited  to  draft  their  remonstrance.  On  their 
release,  elected  and  reelected  to  the  Continental  Congress  and, 
in  1787,  to  the  Federal  Constitutional  Convention,2  it  is  now  in- 
disputable that  he  was  more  instrumental  in  shaping  the  great 
work  there  evolved  than  any  single  member;  for  while  the  draft 
with  which  he  furnished  the  Convention  has  been  lost,  recent  in- 
vestigations establish  the  fact  that  of  its  eighty-four  provisions, 

1  "He  was  proficient  in  Latin,  Greek,  French,  Spanish  and  Italian."  Old 
pamphlet  by  W.  S.  E.,  in  possession  of  Charles  Pinckney  of  Claremont,  quoted  in 
address  to  Porter  Military  Academy,  by  Theo.  D.  Jervey,  June  25,  1905.  News 
&  Courier. 

2  So.  Ca.  Hist.  &  Gen.  Mag.,  Vol.  2,  p.  145. 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

no  less  than  thirty-two,  and  probably  more,  were  incorporated 
at  his  suggestion.1 

Elected  Governor  in  1789,  he  had  had  occasion  to  note  the  strong 
tide  of  feeling  against  Federalism,  which  the  fight  of  the  up-country, 
led  by  the  old  veteran,  General  Sumter,  at  the  ratification  of  the 
Constitution,  had  disclosed  and,  with  regard  to  which  the  vote  of 
89  to  135  2  to  postpone  and  73  to  149  to  refuse  to  ratify,  was  the 
exhibit  (many  of  the  members  being  the  same  that  had  in  the 
Legislature,  at  an  earlier  date,  by  a  vote  of  93  to  40  3  defeated  a 
bill,  permitting  the  importation  of  African  slaves)  which  intimated 
that  there  was  something  much  more  profound  than  sectional  feel- 
ing or  class,  or  commercial  interest,  that  had  stirred  them  to  this 
opposition  to  the  Constitution.  President  of  the  Convention 
which  formulated  the  new  Constitution  for  the  State,  while  voting 
for  Charleston  as  against  Columbia  for  the  capital,  on  which  the 
low-country  was  defeated  by  a  majority  of  four  votes,  in  contrast 
to  the  outspoken  Charles  Cotesworth,  he  acted  as  a  compromiser 
and  adjuster  of  differences,  as  if  he  realized,  even  then,  how  neces- 
sary in  the  future  the  aid  of  some  of  these  very  opponents  would 
be  to  him,  and  how  naturally  they  would  turn  to  him,  as  a  leader; 
for  it  was  a  time  of  change,  and  the  State  Constitution  itself  was 
probably  foreshadowed  in  many  particulars  by  the  speech  in  which 
he  opened  the  deliberations  of  that  body.4 

1  "We  can  say  that  Pinckney  suggested  some  thirty-one  or  thirty-two  provisions, 
which  were  finally  embodied  in  the  Constitution.  ...  It  must  not  be  assumed 
that  we  know  all  that  Pinckney  thus  contributed  to  the  fabric  of  the  Constitution. 
We  now  know  very  definitely  the  nature  of  his  recommendations  .  .  .  but  there 
were  doubtless  some  other  propositions  that  likewise  found  permanence  in  the 
work  of  the  Convention.  If  mere  assertion  based  on  analogy  and  general  prob- 
ability were  worth  while,  other  portions  of  the  Constitution  might  be  pointed  out 
as  coming  from  the  ingenious  and  confident  young  statesman  of  South  Carolina." 
"Sketch  of  Charles  Pinckney's  Plan  for  a  Constitution,  1787,"  by  Andrew  Mc- 
Laughlin, p.  741,  American  Historical  Review. 

2  So.  Ca.  Gazette,  April  21  and  23,  1788. 

3  So.  Ca.  Gazette,  Jan.  23,  1788.  "Thomas  Pinckney,"  by  his  grandson,  C.  C. 
Pinckney,  p.  95.  *  City  Gazette,  May  12,  1790. 


4  INTRODUCTORY 

The  act  by  which  the  deputies  had  been  commissioned  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  Philadelphia  Convention  had  recited:  " Whereas 
the  powers  at  present  vested  in  the  United  States  in  Congress 
assembled,  by  the  articles  of  confederation  and  perpetual  union 
of  the  said  States  are  found  by  experience  greatly  inadequate  to 
the  weighty  purposes  they  were  originally  intended  to  answer, 
and  it  has  become  absolutely  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  the  con- 
federated States  that  other  and  more  ample  powers  in  certain 
cases  should  be  vested  in  and  exercised  by  the  said  United  States 
in  Congress  assembled,  etc.  Be  it  therefore  enacted  .  .  .  that 
five  commissioners  be  forthwith  appointed  .  .  .  duly  authorized 
and  empowered  in  devising  and  discussing  all  such  alterations, 
clauses,  articles  and  provisions  as  may  be  thought  necessary 
to  render  the  Federal  Constitution  entirely  adequate  to  the 
actual  situation  and  future  good  government  of  the  confederated 
States.  .  .  ."1 

The  vote  to  postpone  and  to  refuse  to  ratify  indicates,  therefore, 
the  dissatisfaction,  in  some  quarters,  with  the  result. 

We  have  the  statesman-like  speech  in  which  Charles  Pinckney 
defended  that  work  and  confidently  contemplated  the  ratification; 
but  the  efforts  of  General  Sumter  and  Jehu  Wilson,  in  opposition, 
have  not  been  preserved.  In  the  following  burst  of  poetic  frenzy, 
some  of  the  views  of  the  opposition  may,  however,  appear :  — 

"In  evil  hour  his  pen  Squire  Adams  drew, 
Claiming  dominion  to  his  well-born  few. 
In  the  gay  circle  of  St.  James'  plac'd 
He  wrote,  and,  writing,  has  his  work  disgrac'd. 
Smit  with  the  splendor  of  a  British  King 
The  crown  prevail'd,  so  once  despis'd  a  thing. 
Shelbourne  and  Pitt  approv'd  of  all  he  wrote; 
While  Rush  and  Wilson  echo  back  his  note. 

1  Statutes  at  Large,  So.  Ca.,  Vol.  5,  p.  4. 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

"Tho'  British  armies  could  not  here  prevail, 
Yet  British  politics  shall  turn  the  scale. 
In  five  short  years  of  freedom  weary  grown 
We  quit  our  plain  republics  for  a  throne. 
Congress  and  President  full  proof  shall  bring, 
A  mere  disguise  for  Parliament  and  King. 

"A  standing  army!  —  curse  the  plan  so  base; 
A  despot's  safety,  —  Liberty's  disgrace.  — 
Who  saved  these  realms  from  Britain's  bloody  hand, 
Who,  but  the  generous  rustics  of  the  land. 
That  free-born  race  inured  to  every  toil, 
Who  tame  the  ocean  and  subdue  the  soil; 
Who,  tyrants  banished  from  this  injured  shore, 
Domestic  traitors  may  expel  once  more. 

"  Ye,  who  have  bled  in  Freedom's  sacred  cause, 
Ah,  why  desert  her  maxims  and  her  laws? 
When  thirteen  States  are  moulded  into  one, 
Your  rights  are  vanished  and  your  honors  gone. 
The  form  of  Freedom  shall  alone  remain 
As  Rome  had  senators  when  she  hugged  the  chain. 

"  Sent  to  revise  your  systems  —  not  to  change  — 
Sages  have  done  what  Reason  deems  most  strange ! 
Some  alterations  in  our  fabric  we 
Calmly  propos'd  and  hoped  to  see. 
Ah,  now  deceived,  those  heroes  in  renown 
Scheme  for  themselves  —  and  pull  the  fabric  down  — 
Bid  in  its  place  Columbia's  tombstone  rise 
Inscrib'd  with  these  sad  words  —  Here  Freedom  lies."  l 

After  reading  this,  we  are  not  greatly  surprised  to  note,  Carnes 
of  the  up-country,  two  years  later,  alluding  to  Charleston  as  the 
home  of  the  "opulent"  2  and  as  a  capital  less  well  suited  to  "those 
who  are  styled  of  a  Plebeian  race " ;  for  Charleston  and  the  low- 
country,  almost  to  a  man,  had  been  for  ratification. 

But  leaving  these  contentions,  let  us  glance  at  the  condition  of 

1  So.  Ca.  Gazette,  Jan.  26,  1788.  2  City  Gazette,  May  26,  1790. 


6  INTRODUCTORY 

the  people  of  the  State,  calmed  by  the  abolition  of  the  rights  of 
primogeniture  and  a  new  apportionment  of  the  representatives. 
By  the  census  of  1790  the  population  of  the  State  was  put  at  249,073, 
or  about  140,000  whites  to  about  108,000  negroes.  In  five  out  of 
the  six  districts  into  which  the  State  was  divided,  the  number  of 
whites  was  as  follows:  Charleston,  15,743;  Georgetown,  11,313; 
Orangeburg  and  Beaufort,  13,693;  Camden,  31,413;  Ninety-Six, 
47,288/ 

The  city  of  Charleston,  the  metropolis  of  the  State,  contained 
16,359  inhabitants,  8089  whites  and  8270  colored.  How  many 
of  these  latter  were  free  does  not  appear;  but  that  there  must  have 
been  more  than  a  few  does  appear  from  the  fact  that  in  that  year, 
November  1,  was  founded  the  "Brown  Fellowship  Society,"  to 
which  it  is  said  free  black  men  were  not  eligible,  and  they  accord- 
ingly formed  their  own.  The  northern  boundary  of  the  city  was 
Hudson  Street,  in  part;  but  in  the  main,  Boundary,  now  called 
Calhoun.  Lines  of  shipping  to  England,  Ireland  and  Germany 
were  established  and  well  patronized;  while  quite  a  number  of 
artisans  found  occupation  in  their  trades. 

Butchers,  bakers,  brewers,  distillers,  blacksmiths,  whitesmiths, 
cutlers,  fire-engine  makers,  house-carpenters,  bricklayers,  painters, 
glaziers,  cabinet-makers,  coach-makers,  wheelwrights,  coopers, 
tanners,  stocking-weavers,  shoe-makers,  saddlers,  hatters,  tailors, 
peruke-makers,  goldsmiths,  engravers,  watch-makers,  copper- 
smiths and  brass  founders,  gunsmiths,  tallow-chandlers,  printers, 
joiners,  mast-makers,  ship-carpenters,  rope-makers,  block-makers, 
sail-makers,  carvers,  gilders,  boat-builders,  turners,  umbrella- 
makers,  glass-grinders,  rubbers,  diamond-cutters,  polishers,  sil- 
verers,  musical  instrument-makers,  limners,  stationers  and  book- 
binders all  marched  2  in  the  procession  from  Roper's  Wharf  to 
Federal  Green  with  the  "gentleman  planters,"  professional  men 

1  So.  Ca.  Gazette,  Jan.  1,  1791.  2  State  Gazette,  June  2,  1788. 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

and  officials  the  day  the  Constitution  was  ratified,  two  years  pre- 
vious; while  in  the  daily  papers  of  this  year,  in  juxtaposition  to 
advertisements  with  regard  to  miniature  painting  and  polite  litera- 
ture, appeared  offerings  of  fine  dress  goods  for  fine  folk  and  osna- 
burgs  for  negroes;  good  stock,  excellent  land  and  prime  field- 
hands  for  cultivating  same. 

The  General  Assembly  of  the  State,  consisting  of  125  members 
of  the  House  and  36  of  the  Senate,  had  just  reelected  Charles 
Pinckney  Governor  by  a  majority  of  49  votes,  and  the  supplies  for 
government,  including  £900  salary  for  the  Governor,  and  £100 
for  his  secretary,  aggregated  £37,361.  The  State,  according 
to  the  Connecticut  American  Mirror,  "was  getting  into  a  good 
way,  under  a  new  constitution."  1 

This  £900,  or  $4500,  was,  at  this  time,  a  small  matter  to  the  Gov- 
ernor, as  he  was  the  fortunate  owner  of  seven  plantations  and  nearly 
2000  negroes,  yielding  him  annually  about  $8o,ooo.2 

To  this  community,  May  2,  1791,  came  the  great  President. 
The  account  of  Washington's  reception  is  interesting.  It  shows 
the  great  man,  as  he  was,  the  personification  of  dignity;  and  it 
helps  us  to  understand  the  people  of  Charleston  and  their  ways  — 
the  environment  which  affected  those  subjected  to  it.  The  Com- 
mittee of  Council  to  make  arrangements  consisted  of  the  Honorable 
Arnoldus  Vander  Horst,  Intendant,  Colonel  Mitchell,  Mr.  Morris, 
Mr.  Corbett  and  Mr.  Marshall.  Sixty  pounds,  or  about  $300,  was 
applied  to  the  hiring  of  the  house  of  Thomas  Heyward,  Esquire, 
together  with  the  furniture,  a  housekeeper  and  servants.  A 
barge  was  procured  and  lengthened.  It  was  to  be  manned  by 
twelve  masters  of  American  vessels  in  port  as  a  volunteer  crew, 


1  So.  Ca.  Gazette,  Dec.  6,  1790. 

3  "Hon.  Charles  Pinckney,  LL.D.,  No.  2,"  by  W.  S.  E.  of  S.  C,  written  for  De 
Bow's  Review  Pamphlets,  July  and  August,  1864,  Ser.  5,  Vol.  7,  Charleston  Library 
Society. 


8  INTRODUCTORY 

handsomely  dressed  at  their  own  expense.  These  elected  to  clothe 
themselves  in  "sky-blue  jackets."  This  barge  was  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  great  man  at  Haddrel's  Point  for  his  conveyance  to 
the  city  by  the  Recorder,  who,  in  his  official  robes,  should  there 
await  his  arrival. 

Promptly  at  the  day  and  hour  named,  General  Moultrie,  Gen- 
eral Pinckney  and  the  Honorable  John  B.  Holmes,  the  Recorder, 
in  his  official  robes,  met  the  President  at  Haddrel's  Point,  where 
they  embarked  and,  accompanied  by  a  flotilla,  crowded  with 
cheering  passengers  and  from  which  two  bands  were  discoursing 
music,  proceeded  across  the  harbor  to  the  foot  of  Queen  Street, 
where  steps  had  been  arranged  and  where  the  President  was  met 
by  the  Governor,  the  Intendant,  the  City  Council  and  the  State 
Society  of  the  Cincinnati. 

However  the  Governor  may  have  been  attired,  he  must  have 
appeared  to  the  public  as  a  somewhat  inconsiderable  personage, 
in  contrast  with  the  imposing  presence  of  the  Intendant  and 
Wardens,  each  of  whom  carried  a  black  varnished  wand  three- 
quarters  of  an  inch  in  diameter  and  six  feet  long;  those  of  the 
Wardens  headed  in  silver  and  that  of  the  Intendant  in  gold,  on 
which  were  inscribed  the  ciphers  C.C.L.  What  the  Governor 
said,  does  not  appear;  but  his  Honor  the  Intendant  addressed  the 
distinguished  guest  as  follows:  "The  Intendant  and  Wardens  beg 
leave,  sir,  to  welcome  you  to  this  city.  It  will  be  their  care  to  make 
your  stay  agreeable  —  they  have  provided  accommodations  for 
yourself  and  suite  to  which  they  will  be  happy  to  conduct  you." 

The  Father  of  his  Country  calmly  replied  that  he  was  ready  to 
attend  them  and  would  follow,  and  the  procession  moved  forward 
in  the  following  order :  — 

City  Sheriff  (with  mace). 

Messenger  and  Marshall. 

Treasurer  and  Clerk. 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

Recorder. 

Wardens  with  their  wands  (two  and  two). 

The  Intendant. 

President  and  suite.1 
By  rare  good  fortune  the  Reverend  Isaac  Stockton  Keith,  late 
of  Bucks  County,  Pennsylvania,  who  had  arrived  with  his  wife 
at  Charleston  three  years  previous,  was  present,  and  with  her 
assistance  prepared  an  account,  in  which  appear  details  more  notice- 
able to  outsiders  and  impressions  more  interesting  than  such  as 
might  be  recorded  by  a  native;  to  wit,  the  " sky-blue  jackets," 
above. 

To  begin  with,  we  are  informed,  it  was  a  serene  and  beautiful 
morning,  and  on  such  the  harbor,  alone,  is  a  sight  worth  seeing; 
but  on  this  festive  occasion  all  the  vessels  in  port  had  out  their 
bunting,  a  guard  of  militia  was  in  attendance  at  the  landing,  there 
was  a  loud  peal  of  huzzas  from  the  crowd  and  a  feu  de  joie  by  the 
corps  of  artillery. 

The  procession  included  the  different  orders  of  citizens,  whose 
stations  had  been  previously  assigned  by  lot,  except  the  clergy,  to 
whom  the  honor  was  given  of  walking  next  after  the  President  and 
principal  officers  of  government  and  foreign  ministers.  The  march 
was  to  the  Exchange,  where  the  President,  accompanied  by  the 
Governor  and  those  who  immediately  followed,  including  the 
clergy,  ascended  the  steps  to  a  platform,  at  "that  elegant  building," 
at  which  point  there  was  another  feu  de  joie,  and  the  rest  of  the 
procession  passed  by,  having  the  honor  of  seeing  and  saluting  the 
President  and  receiving  the  honors  of  his  bows  and  smile.  Later 
during  the  visit,  says  the  Reverend  Keith,  "there  was  a  grand  ball, 
that  the  ladies  might  have  an  opportunity  of  enjoying  his  presence 
among  them,  of  paying  their  respects  and  testifying  their  love  and 
admiration  and  also  of  displaying  their  charms  of  beauty  and  dress 

1  Charleston  Year  Book,  1883,  p.  503;  Keith's  Works,  p.  428. 


io  INTRODUCTORY 

before  him."  With  regard  to  which  last,  our  informant  says  he 
has  been  "told  that  the  ornaments  provided  for  the  embellishments 
of  the  lovely  persons  of  our  fair  citizens  were  extremely  rich  and 
superb,  and  probably,"  he  adds,  "in  many  degrees  above  the  taste 
of  so  plain  a  Virginia  planter  as  the  worthy  George  Washington."  * 

Taking  up  again  the  newspaper  account  of  the  day,  we  learn 
that  the  Intendant  and  Wardens,  having  installed  the  President 
in  Mr.  Thomas  Hey  ward's  house,  retired  to  the  Council  Chamber 
and  "  Ordered :  That  the  Recorder  do  wait  on  the  President  of 
the  United  States  to  know  when  he  would  be  pleased  to  receive 
the  corporation  with  their  address;"  and  that  mercurial  official, 
being  despatched  on  his  mission,  returned  with  the  announcement 
that  the  President,  at  three  o'clock  next  day,  would  receive  them. 
The  first  day  the  President  dined  with  the  Governor  and  a  few 
select  friends. 

By  a  familiar  visitor,  we  are  informed,  that  the  collection  of 
statuettes,  medals,  etc.,  in  the  house  in  which  the  Governor  en- 
tertained Washington,  rendered  it  almost  a  museum;  that  his  fine 
library,  occupying  an  entire  suite  of  three  rooms,  contained  many 
thousand  volumes  of  the  most  rare  and  choice  books,  collected  from 
every  quarter,  and  near  a  score  of  splendid  paintings,  and  these 
rooms  overlooked  a  garden  of  choicest  flowers.2  The  whole  of 
this  large  mansion  was,  on  a  subsequent  occasion,  thrown  open  to 
the  public;  but  on  this  first  occasion  it  was  Washington  and  his 
particular  friends  that  the  Governor  entertained. 

On  the  following  day  the  city  authorities  waited  upon  the  Presi- 
dent with  their  address,  which  the  Intendant  read  and  presented. 
It  is  a  production  quite  suited  to  the  occasion :  — 


1  Keith's  Works,  p.  428. 

3  "Charles  Pinckney,  LL.D.,  No.  2,"  by  W.  S.  E.  of  S.  C,  written  for  De 
Bow's  Review  Pamphlets,  July  and  August,  1864,  Ser.  5,  Vol.  2,  No.  10,  Charles- 
ton Library  Society. 


INTRODUCTORY  1 1 

"To  the  President  of  the  United  States:  — 

"  Sir:  The  Intendant  and  Wardens  representing  the  citizens 
of  Charleston  find  themselves  particularly  gratified  by  your  arrival 
in  the  metropolis  of  the  State.  It  is  an  event  the  expectation  of 
which  they  have  for  some  time  with  great  pleasure  indulged.  When 
in  the  person  of  the  Supreme  Magistrate  of  the  United  States  they 
recognize  the  Father  of  the  People  and  the  defender  of  the  liberties 
of  America,  they  feel  a  particular  satisfaction  in  declaring  their 
firm  persuasion  that  they  speak  the  language  of  their  constituents 
in  asserting  that  no  body  of  men  throughout  this  extensive  conti- 
nent can  exceed  them  in  attachment  to  his  public  character  or  in 
revering  his  private  virtues,  and  they  do  not  hesitate  in  anticipat- 
ing those  blessings  which  must  be  ultimately  diffused  amongst  the 
inhabitants  of  these  States  from  his  exertions  for  their  general 
welfare,  aided  by  those  in  whom  they  have  also  vested  a  share  of 
their  confidence.  Go  on,  sir,  as  you  have  done,  continue  to  possess 
as  well  as  to  deserve  the  love  and  esteem  of  all  your  fellow-citizens 
while  millions  in  other  parts  of  the  globe,  though  strangers  to  your 
person,  shall  venerate  your  name.  May  you  long  be  spared  to 
receive  those  marks  of  respect  which  you  so  entirely  merit  from 
a  grateful  people,  and  may  all  who  live  under  your  auspices  continue 
to  experience  that  freedom  and  happiness  which  is  so  universally 
acknowledged  to  have  proceeded  from  your  wise,  judicious  and  pru- 
dent administration. 

"Arnoldus  Vander  Horst  Intendant." 

To  this  the  great  Washington,  with  that  splendid  balance  which 
ever  held  him  first  among  his  contemporaries,  responded :  — 

"  Gentlemen  :  The  gratification  you  are  pleased  to  express  at  my 
arrival  in  your  metropolis  is  replied  to  with  sincerity,  in  a  grateful 
acknowledgment  of  the  pleasing  sensations  which  your  affectionate 
urbanity  has  excited.     Highly  sensible  of  your  attachment  and 


12  INTRODUCTORY 

favorable  opinion,  I  entreat  you  to  be  persuaded  of  the  lasting  grati- 
tude which  they  impress  and  of  the  cordial  regard  with  which  they 
are  returned.  It  is  the  peculiar  boast  of  our  country,  that  her 
happiness  is  alone  dependent  on  the  collective  wisdom  and  virtue 
of  her  citizens,  and  rests  not  on  the  exertions  of  any  individual. 
Whilst  a  just  sense  is  entertained  of  their  natural  and  political 
advantages,  we  cannot  fail  to  improve  them  and  with  the  progress 
of  our  national  importance  to  combine  the  freedom  and  felicity 
of  individuals.  I  shall  be  particularly  gratified  in  observing  the 
happy  influence  of  public  measures  on  the  prosperity  of  your  city, 
which  is  so  much  entitled  to  the  regard  and  esteem  of  the  American 
Union." 

Upon  this  response  the  City  Council  retired,  and  the  merchants 
came  forward  with  their  address,  to  which  the  President  again 
made  answer,  attuning  the  same  to  a  slightly  minor  key ;  and  then 
came  the  public  dinner,  at  six  shillings  for  each  person,  and  the 
best  Madeira  wine  at  five  shillings  a  bottle. 

The  next  day  the  President  dined  with  the  Governor  again, 
but  in  public,  and  on  the  next  with  that  descendant  of  the  House 
of  Ormonde,  who  had  given  up  the  King's  commission  to  serve 
as  Adjutant- General  of  South  Carolina,  in  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  at  the  time  of  the  visit  represented  the  State  in  the  United 
States  Senate. 

And  so  from  day  to  day  through  the  week.  His  portrait,  it  was 
arranged,  was  to  be  painted  for  his  hosts,  and  still  adorns  the 
Council  Chamber;  he  attended  divine  service  at  St.  Philip's  and 
St.  Michael's,  and  when  finally  escorted  to  the  city  limits  by  the 
Intendant  and  Wardens  and  thanked  upon  the  occasion  of  his 
departure,  returned  his  thanks  with  the  statement  that  should  it 
ever  be  in  his  power  it  would  give  him  pleasure  "to  visit  this  very 
respectable  city." 


INTRODUCTORY 


13 


That  he  was  pleased  with  his  visit  to  the  State  we  may  assume 
on  the  characterization  of  the  manner  of  his  entertainment,  near 
Georgetown,  by  Colonel  William  Alston,  "  which  he  pronounced  to 
be  truly  Virginian."  1  Could  praise  rise  higher?  Possibly,  for 
he  declared  of  his  host's  plantation  that  "he  had  seen  nothing  in 
all  his  travels  so  justly  entitled  to  be  called  a  fairy-land  as  the  rice- 
fields  of  the  Waccamaw  in  the  genial  month  of  May."  And  this 
compliment,  related  to  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  preserved 
by  him  forty  years  later,  in  the  discharge  of  a  filial  duty  to  his 
father-in-law,  who  had  told  him  of  it. 

1  "  Obituary  of  Colonel  William  Alston,"  by  Robert  Y.  Hayne  in  Charleston 
Mercury,  July  1,  1839. 


BOOK  I 

PREPARATION 

CHAPTER  I 

v 

ROBERT  Y.  HAYNE'S  PARENTAGE,  BIRTH  AND  EARLY  YEARS;   THE 
POLITICS   OF   CHARLESTON  AT  THAT  PERIOD 

John  Hayne,  the  founder  of  the  Hayne  family  in  South  Caro- 
lina, came  to  the  Province  in  1700,  settling  in  Colleton  County. 
Little  is  known  of  his  antecedents  save  that  his  family  had  resided 
in  Shropshire,  England,1  three  miles  from  Shrewsbury;  that  the 
name  was  not  infrequently  spelled  Haynes ;  and  the  arms,  as  given 
in  Burke,  were  used  at  a  very  early  period  by  the  Hayne  family  in 
the  Province. 

John  Hayne,  or  Haynes,  married  Mary  Deane,  by  whom  he  had 
eight  children,  from  the  eldest  of  whom  descended  the  subject  of 
this  sketch;  while  from  the  seventh  was  descended  Colonel  Isaac 
Hayne,  taken  in  arms  and  executed  during  the  Revolutionary  War 
by  Lord  Rawdon. 

John  Hayne,  the  second,  married  Mary  Edings,  by  whom  he  had 
four  children,  the  third  of  whom,  Abraham,  was  born  in  1732  and 
was  therefore  thirteen  years  the  senior  of  his  cousin,  Colonel  Isaac. 

Abraham  married  Susannah  Brantford,  by  whom  he  had  three 
children.  It  has  been  asserted  that  he,  too,  was  captured  and  im- 
prisoned by  the  British  authorities  during  the  Revolutionary  War; 

1  "  The  Hayne  Family,"  by  Theo.  D.  Jervey,  Vol.  5,  So.  Ca.  Hist.  &  Gen. 
Mag.,  p.  168. 


16  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

the  assertion  being  made  as  early  as  1834/  a  time  at  which  there 
were  still  living  participants  in  that  struggle.  And  it  has  also  been 
declared  that  he  died  about  1781  of  fever,  contracted  aboard  a 
prison-ship.2  If,  as  stated,  he  died  in  the  arms  of  his  son  William, 
it  is  clear  that  the  latter  must  have  been  a  mere  youth,  as  he  was 
not  born  before  1766.  This  son  William,  the  father  of  Robert  Y. 
Hayne,  died  at  fifty-one;  yet,  as  his  wife  bore  him,  in  the  thirty- 
one  years  of  his  married  life,  fourteen  children,  two  of  whom 
attained  distinction  and  prominence,  he  may  be  said  to  have  con- 
tributed to  the  advancement  of  his  section.  Apart  from  his  mar- 
riage to  Elizabeth  Peronneau,  little  is  known  of  him;  but  that  he 
must  have  been  a  man  of  recognized  force  and  character  is  evinced 
by  the  fact  of  his  election,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  convention  which  framed  the  new  constitution  of  the 
State,  before  alluded  to,  in  the  year  just  preceding  the  birth  of  his 
illustrious  son.  This  son  Robert,  the  fourth  son  and  fifth  child 
of  William  and  Elizabeth  Hayne,  was  born  on  the  tenth  day  of 
November,  in  the  year  1791. 

At  that  time,  and  for  some  time  afterward,  his  father  lived  at 
Pon  Pon  plantation  in  Colleton  District. 

The  Christian  and  middle  names  of  the  child  were  derived  from 
an  uncle  by  marriage,  a  Scotchman,  Dr.  Robert  Young,  to  the 
care  of  whose  widow  he  was  confided  from  the  period  of  his  birth 
until  about  his  tenth  year.3  Silent,  thoughtful  and  self-controlled, 
he  developed  the  quality  of  observation  and  the  power  of  memory, 
in  no  way  exhibiting  any  precocious  traits.  For  nine  years  he 
lived  at  Beaufort,  South  Carolina;  but  in  1800  he  came  to  Charles- 
ton, where  he  entered  first  the  school  of  Mr.  Mason  and  later  that 
of  Dr.  John  Smith.    The  reputation  of  the  latter  as  a  graduate  of 

1  "  National  Portrait  Gallery,"  Vol.  2,  p.  8. 

3  "  Lives  of  Robert  Young  Hayne  and  Hugh  Swinton  Legare,"  by  Paul  H. 
Hayne,  p.  16.  3  Ibid.,  by  Paul  H.  Hayne,  p.  10. 


PARENTAGE,  BIRTH  AND  EARLY  YEARS       17 

an  European  university  and  a  classical  scholar  of  some  distinction, 
we  find  noted  as  late  as  1878;  but  of  the  claims  of  the  former,  to 
the  qualifications  of  an  instructor  of  youth,  there  is  only  discover- 
able his  advertisement  in  the  daily  press  of  the  day :  — 

"English  School 
"Trott  Street. 

"The  exercises  of  this  as  well  as  the  other  schools  under  my 
direction  recommence  This  Day.  Hours  of  attendance  for  Young 
Ladies  at  my  house  in  Quince  Street  from  eleven  until  two.  In- 
struction in  Dancing,  Music  and  in  the  French  Language  may  be 
had  in  addition  to  the  usual  school  exercises.  Boarding,  lodging 
and  washing  on  the  most  reasonable  terms,  or  Breakfast  and  Din- 
ners as  may  suit  the  convenience  of  those  at  a  distance. 
"The  public's  most  obedient 

"William  Mason,  A.M. 

"N.B.  A  classical  Assistant  wanted.  One  hundred  and  fifty 
guineas  punctually  paid,  quarterly,  and  Boarding  and  Lodging  in 
my  family  are  offered  a  gentleman  properly  qualified.  Apply  at 
my  house  within  the  hours  of  7  and  8  in  the  morning."  1 

When  it  is  realized  that  the  above  qualifications  procured  for 
their  possessor,  in  addition  to  board  and  lodging  with  a  genteel 
family,  more  than  half  again  as  much  as  was  paid  in  salary  to  the 
circuit  solicitors,  then  fixed  at  £100  apiece,  and  more  than  three- 
fifths  the  salary  of  the  Attorney- General  of  the  State,  it  affords  a 
striking  illustration  of  the  desire  for  culture. 

During  the  nine  years  which  had  elapsed  between  Hayne's 
birth  and  arrival  at  Charleston,  Arnoldus  Vander  Horst  had  suc- 
ceeded Charles  Pinckney  as  Governor,  and  he,  in  turn,  given  way 
to  General  William  Moultrie,  who  in  1796  had  relinquished  the 

1  So.  Ca.  Gazette,  June  2,  1800. 


18  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

office  to  Charles  Pinckney,  for  the  third  time,  that  extraordinarily 
gifted  individual  having  just  returned  from  an  extended  visit  to 
Europe,  where  with  letters  from  Washington  and  Franklin  he 
had  met  the  most  distinguished  men  of  the  day  *  on  terms  of  inti- 
macy. Sent  to  the  United  States  Senate  in  1798,2  he  had  been 
holding  that  office  for  two  years  and  was  in  a  position  to  observe 
that  the  strength  of  the  Federalists,  which  had  been  on  the  ebb 
in  the  State  ever  since  the  adoption  of  the  State  Constitution,  was 
also  now  distinctly  waning  in  the  nation. 

The  city  of  Charleston  seems,  however,  to  have  prospered  under 
Federal  politics.  The  customs  had  more  than  trebled,  and  upon 
one  day,  in  the  busy  season,  exclusive  of  coasters,  as  many  as  1 1 7  3 
sail  were  noted  in  the  harbor.  Regular  lines  to  Cuba,  Jamaica, 
England  and  France  advertised  their  dates  of  sailing ;  while  rum, 
logwood  and  mahogany  logs,  Bordeaux  claret  of  a  superior 
quality,  silver  and  gilt  watches,  ladies'  elegant  gold  watches,  gentle- 
men's elegant  gold  watches,  seals  and  silver  knee  buckles,4  were 
articles  of  ordinary  import.  From  what  was  to  be  had  at  W.  P. 
Young's  book-store,  43  Broad  Street,  one  obtains  an  idea  of  what 
was  read:  "Claim  and  Answer  of  Andrew  Allen  vs.  United  States 
under  Treaty  with  Great  Britain,"  Parks's  "Travels  in  Africa," 
Gisborne's  "Duty  of  Women,"  Robertson's  "History  of  America," 

1  Notes  from  his  destroyed  journal,  kept  during  his  visit,  indicate:  i.  Dinner 
at  M.  Talleyrand's :  Topics  discussed :  Persons  present :  Style  of  a  French  Dinner 
party. 

2.  Names  and  description  of  several  ladies  with  whom  I  conversed.  A  soiree : 
The  style,  grace  and  wit  of  the  French. 

3.  A  day  with  Marbois  and  Marquis  de  Lafayette.     French  views  of  America. 

4.  Memoranda  of  pictures,  gardens  and  public  buildings  in  Paris. 

5.  Discussion  at  the  club  with  M.  Le  Roy  and  Charles  Arnould  on  the  politics 
of  America. 

6.  A  view  of  the  French  capital  and  the  French  people  as  seen  by  an  American. 
Pamphlet  W.  S.  E.,  possession  of  Charles  Pinckney,  Esq. 

2  Charleston  Year  Book,  1884,  p.  338. 

3  So.  Ca.  Gazette,  Jan.  1,  1801.  *  Charleston  Courier,  July  3,  1800. 


PARENTAGE,   BIRTH  AND   EARLY   YEARS  19 

Hume's  " History  of  England  down  to  1783,"  Adams's  "Defence 
of  the  American  Constitutions,"  Count  Rumford's  "Essays," 
Gouverneur  Morris,  S.  S.  Smith  and  Fisher  Ames's  orations;  while 
for  twelve  and  a  half  cents  one  could  obtain  "  Alfred,  a  poem  in 
blank  verse  written  by  a  Carolinian,  18  years  old,  now  a  student  of 
Yale  college  in  Connecticut."  Subscribers  to  Kotzebue's  works 
were  asked  to  call  for  sixth,  seventh  and  eighth  volumes ;  while  it  is 
also  announced  that  a  translation  from  the  German  of  his  tragedy 
"Pizarro"  and  an  adaptation  of  it  to  the  English  stage  by  Richard 
Brinsley  Sheridan  (first  Charleston),  twentieth  London  edition, 
was  also  to  be  had.1  For  the  display  of  histrionic  talent  there  were 
the  Charleston  Theatre  and  Vauxhall  Gardens;  while  upon  Sulli- 
van's Island  the  managers  of  the  former  had  just  erected  the  South 
Carolina  Lyceum.  Golf,  almost  if  not  entirely  unknown  at  this 
date  elsewhere  in  America,  was  played  on  Harleston  Green;  but 
rougher  forms  of  amusement  were  also  indulged  in  at  the  Tivoli 
Gardens,  the  resort  for  picnics  and  bear  fights.2  There  was  much 
wining  and  dining  and  parading;  but,  as  the  crack  corps  of  cav- 
alry paraded  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  soldiering  was 
serious.  Indeed,  they  were  police,  and  most  efficient  on  extreme 
occasions.  On  the  escape  of  the  Touheys  from  jail,  it  is  related 
as  an  ordinary  event  that  the  troopers  scattered  through  the  country, 
and  one  horseman,  chancing  the  shot  with  which  his  command 
to  "halt"  was  received,  cut  down  the  armed  convict  and  brought 
him  in. 

Besides  the  school  of  Mr.  Mason,  before  referred  to,  and  the  new 
academy  of  J.  Smith,  LL.D.,  there  was  the  institution  of  J.  J. 
Negrin,  teacher  of  the  French  and  English  school  at  Archdale 
Street,  and  the  Charleston  College  Grammar  School.3  This  last- 
named  institution  deserves  particular  mention  from  the  fact  that 

1  So.  Ca.  Gazette,  July  1,  1800.  2  Charleston  Year  Book,  1896,  p.  410. 

3  So.  Ca.  Gazette,  Jan.  1,  1800. 


20  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

it  later  developed  into  the  college  of  that  name,  whose  standard 
ranks  to-day  with  the  best  educational  institutions  of  the  country; 
while  the  breadth  and  religious  tolerance  which  has  ever  distin- 
guished it  and  the  city  which  supported  it  was  evidenced  at  that 
early  period  in  the  personnel  of  its  instructors.  The  head  was 
the  Reverend  Dr.  Gallagher,  a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  and  his  asso- 
ciates, the  Reverend  Dr.  Buist  of  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  Church 
and  the  Reverend  Dr.  Purcell,  rector  of  St.  Michael's.1  Interspersed 
with  the  above-mentioned  advertisements  were  others,  which  read 
oddly  enough  at  this  date :  "  Public  Auction — Nine  valuable  young 
negroes  consisting  of  Two  fellows  excellent  sawyers,  trusty  and 
honest.  Two  ditto  Field  slaves.  One  ditto,  a  good  waiting  man 
19  years  old.  One  wench,  a  complete  cook,  washer  and  ironer, 
with  her  child  19  months  old.  One  girl  very  handy  about  house 
12  years  old.  One  ditto  11  years.  Conditions  cash  in  specie 
dollars  at  4  shillings  eight  pence."  Also  "A  nurse  for  Hire.  A 
negro  woman  who  has  been  for  several  years  employed  in  nursing 
young  children.  She  is  sober,  honest,  and  remarkably  tender  with 
her  charges."  2  Besides  these  the  continually  recurring  cut  of  a 
vagabond,  with  the  accompanying  "Ran  away  a  negro  fellow, 
etc." 

Whatever  impression  the  reader  might  draw  from  the  above, 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  also  that  the  Santee  Canal,  a  great  work 
for  the  time,  was  partially  completed  about  this  time  and  in  opera- 
tion for  some  miles.3  At  this  period,  and  for  some  time  previous, 
Charles  Pinckney  had  been  distinctly  the  strongest  political  in- 
fluence in  the  State.  To  his  great  speech  twelve  years  prior, 
urging  in  convention  the  ratification  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  by  his  own  State,  he  had  added  another,  almost 

1  "Life  and  Times  of  William  Lowndes,"  p.  38. 

3  So.  Ca.  State  Gazette,  July  2,  1800. 

8  City  Gazette,  Sept.  19,  1809.     Ad.  July  2,  1800;  So.  Ca.  Gazette. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CHARLES   PINCKNEY. 


PARENTAGE,   BIRTH   AND   EARLY   YEARS  21 

as  remarkable  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  in  the  consideration 
and  discussion  of  that  instrument.  The  first  discloses  the  mental 
force  which,  in  the  main,  urged  South  Carolina  to  the  Union;  the 
second  as  distinctly  marks  the  reaction,  which  inclined  her  to  the 
views  of  Jefferson.  Before  any  allusions  are  made  to  this  impend- 
ing change,  so  clearly  seen  to  be  inevitable  by  the  senator,  a  con- 
sideration even,  in  part,  of  the  speech  in  which  he  advocated  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution  in  1788,  will  be  enlightening.  Any 
abridgment  must  do  some  injustice  to  that  great  argument ;  but  at 
least  it  may  indicate,  in  some  measure,  the  views  of  the  man 
at  that  time  of  greatest  influence  in  South  Carolina,  with  regard 
to  her  connection  with  the  Union. 

On  that  occasion  he  said :  "  We  have  been  taught  to  believe  that 
all  power  of  right  belongs  to  the  people ;  that  it  flows  immediately 
from  them,  and  is  delegated  to  their  officers  for  the  public  good; 
that  our  rulers  are  the  servants  of  the  people,  amenable  to  their 
will  and  created  for  their  use.  .  .  .  Without  a  precedent  and 
with  the  experience  of  but  a  few  years  were  the  convention  called 
upon  to  form  a  system  for  a  people  differing  from  all  others  we  are 
acquainted  with.  The  first  knowledge  necessary  for  us  to  acquire 
was  a  knowledge  of  the  people,  for  whom  the  system  was  to  be 
formed;  for  unless  we  were  acquainted  with  their  situation,  their 
habits,  opinions  and  resources,  it  would  be  impossible  to  form  a 
government  upon  adequate  or  practicable  principles.  If  we  exam- 
ine the  reasons  which  have  given  rise  to  the  distinctions  of  rank 
that  at  present  prevail  in  Europe,  we  shall  find  that  none  of  them 
do  or  in  all  probability  ever  will  exist  in  the  Union.  The  only 
distinction  that  may  take  place  is  that  of  wealth.  Riches  no  doubt 
will  ever  have  their  influence,  and  when  they  are  suffered  to  increase 
to  large  amounts  in  a  few  hands  then  they  may  become  dangerous 
to  the  public.  .  .  .  Those,  however,  are  dangers  that  I  think  we 
have  very  little  to  apprehend  for  these  reasons,  one  is  from  the 


22  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

destruction  of  the  rights  of  primogeniture.  ...  In  the  Northern 
or  Eastern  States  .  .  .  laws  have  been  long  since  passed  in  all  of 
them  destroying  this  right.  .  .  .  Another  is  that  in  the  Eastern 
and  Northern  States  the  landed  property  is  nearly  equally  divided, 
very  few  having  large  bodies,  and  there  are  few  of  them  that  have 
not  small  tracts.  .  .  .  The  people  of  the  Union  may  be  classed 
as  follows:  Commercial  men  who  will  be  of  consequence  or  not 
in  the  political  scale  as  commerce  may  be  made  an  object  of  the 
attention  of  government.  As  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge,  and  pre- 
suming that  proper  sentiments  will  ultimately  prevail  upon  this 
subject,  it  does  not  appear  to  me  that  the  commercial  line  will 
ever  have  much  influence  in  the  politics  of  the  Union.  Foreign 
Trade  is  one  of  the  enemies  against  which  we  must  be  extremely 
guarded,  more  so  than  against  any  other,  as  none  will  ever  have 
a  more  unfavorable  operation.  I  consider  it  as  the  root  of  our 
present  public  distress,  as  the  plentiful  source  from  which  our 
future  national  calamities  will  flow,  unless  great  care  is  taken  to 
prevent  it.  Divided  as  we  are  from  the  old  world,  we  should 
have  nothing  to  do  with  their  politics  and  as  little  as  possible  with 
their  commerce  —  they  can  never  improve  and  must  inevitably 
corrupt  us.  .  .  .  Another  distinguishing  feature  in  our  union  is 
its  division  into  individual  states,  differing  in  extent  of  territory, 
manners,  population  and  products."  Elaborating  this,  he  indicates 
a  knowledge  so  exact  as  to  be  most  surprising  in  that  day  of  poor 
travelling  facilities.  But  his  consideration  of  the  various  govern- 
mental experiments  is  still  more  surprising.  "The  inconveniences 
which  too  frequently  attend  these  differences  in  habits  and  opinion 
among  the  citizens  that  compose  the  Union  are  not  a  little  increased 
by  the  variety  of  their  State  governments;  for  as  I  have  already 
observed,  the  constitutions  or  laws  under  which  a  people  live  never 
fail  to  have  a  powerful  effect  upon  their  manners  —  we  know  that 
all  the  States  have  adhered  in  their  forms  to  the  republican  principle 


PARENTAGE,   BIRTH  AND   EARLY  YEARS  23 

though  they  have  differed  widely  in  their  opinions  of  the  mode  best 
calculated  to  preserve  it.  In  Pennsylvania  and  Georgia  the  whole 
powers  of  government  are  lodged  in  a  legislative  body  of  a  single 
branch,  over  which  there  is  no  control ;  nor  are  their  executives 
or  judicials  from  their  connection  and  necessary  dependence  on 
the  legislature  capable  of  strictly  executing  their  respective  offices. 
In  all  the  other  States  except  Maryland,  Massachusetts  and  New 
York  they  are  only  so  far  improved  as  to  have  a  legislature  with 
two  branches  which  completely  involve  and  swallow  up  all  the 
powers  of  their  governments.  In  neither  of  them  are  the  judicial 
or  executive  placed  in  that  firm  or  independent  situation  which 
can  alone  secure  the  safety  of  the  people  or  the  just  administration 
of  the  laws.  In  Maryland  one  branch  of  the  Legislature  is  a 
Senate  chosen  for  five  years  by  electors  chosen  by  the  people. 
The  knowledge  and  firmness  which  this  body  have  upon  all  occa- 
sions displayed,  not  only  in  the  exercise  of  their  legislative  duties 
but  in  withstanding  and  defeating  such  of  the  projects  of  the  other 
^house  as  appeared  to  them  founded  in  local  and  personal  motives 
have  long  since  convinced  me  that  the  Senate  of  Maryland  is  the 
best  model  of  a  senate  that  has  yet  been  offered  to  the  Union; 
that  it  is  capable  of  correcting  many  of  the  vices  of  the  other  parts 
of  their  Constitution  and  in  a  great  measure  atoning  for  those  de- 
fects which  in  common  with  the  States  I  have  mentioned  are  but 
too  evident  in  their  execution  —  the  want  of  stability  and  inde- 
pendence in  the  judicial  and  executive  departments.  In  Massa- 
chusetts we  find  the  principle  of  legislation  more  improved  by  the 
revisionary  power  which  is  given  to  their  Governor  and  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Governor.  In  New  York  the  same  improvement 
in  legislation  has  taken  place  as  in  Massachusetts ;  but  here  from 
the  executive  being  elected  by  the  great  body  of  the  people, 
holding  his  office  for  three  years  and  being  reeligible,  —  from  the 
appointments  to  office  being  taken  from  the  legislature  and  placed 


24  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

in  a  select  council,  —  I  think  the  Constitution  is  upon  the  whole  the 

x  best  in  the  Union."  After  an  allusion  to  recent  disorders  and 
abuse  of  power  in  Rhode  Island  and  the  check  administered  to 
same  in  Massachusetts,  which  he  cites  as  affording  an  apt  illustra- 
tion of  the  advantage  to  be  derived  from  republican  institutions 
where  enjoyed  by  States  of  great  extent  and  population,  he  reaches 
the  most  important  point  of  his  consideration  which  he  signalizes 
~with  this  declaration:  "In  every  government  there  necessarily 
exists  a  power  from  which  there  is  no  appeal  and  which  for  that 
reason  may  be  termed  absolute  and  incontrollable.  The  person  or 
assembly  in  whom  this  power  resides  is  called  the  sovereign,  or 
supreme  power  of  the  State.  With  us  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Union  resides  in  the  people.  ...  In  their  individual  capacities 
as  citizens  the  people  are  proportionately  represented  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  .  .  .  the  States  .  .  .  will  find  in  the  Senate  the 
guards  of  their  rights  as  political  associations.  On  them,  I  mean 
the  State  systems,  rests  the  general  fabric  .  .  .  each  depending 
upon,  supporting  and  protecting  the  other ;  nor,  so  intimate  is  the 
connection,  can  the  one  be  removed  without  prostrating  the  other, 

^_  like  the  head  and  body  separate  them,  and  they  die."  Then  after 
enumerating  some  of  the  advantages  of  republican  institutions,  he 

*  inquires:  "On  what  depends  the  enjoyment  of  these  rare  ines- 
timable privileges  — on  the  firmness,  on  the  power  of  the  Union  to 
protect  and  defend  them.  ...  It  must  be  obvious  that  without 
a  superintending  government  it  is  impossible  the  liberties  of  the 
country  can  long  be  secured.  .  .  .     Let  us  then  be  careful  in 

^  strengthening  the  Union."  And  calling  on  the  States  to  "dedicate 
a  part  of  the  advantages  to  that  government  from  which  they  re- 

_  ceived  them,"  '  he  asserts  his  opinion  that  the  State  will  find  it  in 
consonance  with  her  advantages,  her  safety  and  her  honor  to  ratify 
the  Constitution. 

1  State  Gazette,  June  9,  1788. 


PARENTAGE,   BIRTH   AND   EARLY   YEARS  25 

Pinckney's  objection  to  the  multiplication  of  office  in  the  person 
of  one  individual  is  in  no  manner  contradictory  to  the  above,  and 
to  the  construction  of  some  of  the  powers  of  the  executive  as  made 
apparent  by  the  acts  of  Adams,  he  at  this  later  time  interposed 
objection.  His  "bill  to  prevent  the  judges  of  the  United  States 
from  accepting  or  holding  any  other  office,  while  they  continued 
as  judges,"1  was  brought  about  by  Adams's  appointment  of  the 
Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  as  envoy  extraordinary  to  France. 
In  support  of  it  he  delivered  a  powerful  speech ;  but  on  a  full  vote 
it  was  lost  by  two  votes.  This  speech,  delivered  at  the  close  of  the 
session  and  the  senator's  advocacy  of  Jefferson,  aroused  the  Federal- 
ists of  Charleston.  The  organ  of  that  faction  gives  this  account 
of  the  celebration  of  the  Fourth  of  July:  "Friday  last  was  the 
24th  anniversary  of  American  Independence.  It  was  honored  and 
celebrated  by  the  citizens  of  Charleston  with  grateful  joy  and  re- 
spect. Federal  salutes  from  the  forts  and  the  ringing  of  bells 
announced  the  dawn  and  were  repeated  throughout  the  day. 
The  American  flag  was  displayed  on  the  forts  and  the  shipping. 
The  regiments  of  Infantry,  Artillery  and  Cavalry  paraded  and  were 
reviewed  by  his  honor  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  Brigadier-General 
Vander  Horst  and  a  number  of  distinguished  military  and  civil 
characters.  The  Cincinnati  and  Revolutionary  Societies  assem- 
bled and  walked  in  procession  to  St.  Philip's  Church.  Prayers 
were  read  by  the  Right  Reverend  Bishop  Smith,  and  an  elegant  and 
perspicuous  oration  commemorative  of  the  day  was  pronounced 
by  the  Honorable  John  Julius  Pringle  of  the  Revolutionary  Society. 
The  memory  of  the  illustrious  Washington  and  his  distinguished 
services  were  brought  to  view  in  an  affecting  manner.  The  name 
of  John  Adams,  our  worthy  President,  was  dwelt  on  with  emphatic 
praise  and  gratitude  for  that  immortal  Declaration  of  Independence 
which  was  with  manly  firmness  proposed  by  him  in  the  Colonial 

1  City  Gazette,  July  2,  1800. 


26  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

Congress  of  '76  and  carried  into  execution  and  supported  to  the 
present  day  with  exemplary  patriotism  and  consistency.  Thomas 
Jefferson  was  accredited  for  the  elegance  of  language  with  which 
it  was  clothed;  and  much  more  that  he  never  merited,  for  that 
excepted,  the  American  people  are  unacquainted  with  any  acts 
which  can  exalt  him  or  benefit  them.  The  different  societies 
dined  together,  and  the  day  closed  socially  and  with  harmony  as  it 
commenced."  1 

But  it  so  happened  that  one  writing  under  the  nom  de  plume 
"  Americanus,"  entertaining  a  somewhat  different  view  of  the  public 
services  of  Jefferson,  had,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  in  the  City  Gazette, 
called  upon  the  public  to  remember  him.  Charles  Pinckney  seems 
to  have  been  suspected  of  the  authorship,  and  in  the  Courier  that 
harmony  alluded  to  is  rudely  broken  with  the  following:  "An 
eulogy  in  fustian  bombastic  burst  forth  in  the  City  Gazette  of  the 
Fourth  of  July  to  the  glory  and  praise  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  Amer- 
icans were  called  on  to  remember !  What  ?  That  the  persecuted 
Jefferson  that  day  twenty-four  years  previous  proposed  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  which  made  us  free.  Thus  far  the  cloven - 
footed  Americanus.  But  remember  it  was  not  the  public  weal  .that 
brought  forth  that  manly,  energetic,  noble  declaration.  No,  no, 
it  was  Jefferson's  own  private  weal.  That  he  might  be  free  from 
his  British  debts."  This  was  signed  by  " Truth"  and  followed 
by  a  bit  of  doggerel  addressed  "To  the  speech-writing,  speech- 
making,  speech-printing  senator,"  with  an  explanatory  footnote 
to  the  effect  that  "  Charlie  always  writes  his  speeches,  reads  them 
aloud  with  a  stentorian  voice  and  has  them  printed."  Then 
finally,  that  all  may  understand  at  whom  this  is  aimed,  we  have  the 
conclusion:  "Charles  Pinckney  affirms  that  the  Jacobins  held  a 
caucus  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  and  the  conclusion 
drawn  by  Charlie  is  that  nought  but  death  can  prevent  the  Presi- 

1  State  Gazette  &  Timothy's  Daily  Advertiser,  July  7, 1800. 


PARENTAGE,  BIRTH  AND  EARLY  YEARS       27 

dency  of  Jefferson."  ■     To  which  may  be  added  that  he  was  borne 
out  by  subsequent  events. 

These  were  the  matters  agitating  the  community  when  Robert 
Y.  Hayne,  a  boy  between  nine  and  ten,  made  it  his  home ;  and,  as 
he  grew  in  years,  "a  reflective,  studious  youth  of  gentle  bearing 
and  amiable  manners,  he  won  despite  a  certain  reserve,  the  affec- 
tionate sympathy  both  of  his  master  and  his  comrades."  2  His 
kinsman,  the  poet,  tells  us  that  "the  favorable  impression  he 
produced  in  those  earlier  days  was  moral  rather  than  mental." 
He  also  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  "a  large  proportion  of 
his  childhood  and  youth  was  spent  in  the  country,"  and  "rural 
labors  and  rural  sports  gave  that  peculiar  vigor,  firmness  and 
elasticity  to  his  physique,  which  enabled  him  afterward  to  ac- 
complish work  which  might  have  exhausted  a  feebler  constitution." 
Instances  of  his  pertinacity  as  a  hunter  and  of  his  self-control  and 
mental  balance  at  a  period  far  more  superstitious  than  to-day  are 
also  cited  by  him  as  illustrative  of  unusual  strength  of  character; 
but  these  days  of  youth  swiftly  passed.  The  progress  of  his  edu- 
cation under  Dr.  Smith  was  interrupted  by  the  removal  of  that 
gentleman  from  Charleston,  and  the  pecuniary  condition  of  the 
youth  not  admitting  of  a  collegiate  education,  between  the  years 
of  seventeen  and  eighteen,  as  a  law  student,  he  entered  the  office 
of  the  Honorable  Langdon  Cheves,3  at  that  time  State  senator  from 
Charleston,  or,  as  it  was  called,  the  Parish  of  St.  Philip  and  St. 
Michael.  These  were  the  eight  years  of  Jefferson's  two  adminis- 
trations, in  the  first  four  of  which  Charles  Pinckney  had  been  away 
as  Minister  to  Spain,  returning  to  be  elected  Governor  for  the  fourth 
time  in  1806.4  During  his  absence  his  cousin,  Charles  Cotesworth, 
had  unsuccessfully  contested   Jefferson's  second  candidacy,  and 

1  State  Gazette,  July  9,  1800. 

2  "Hayne  and  Legarc,"  by  Paul  H.  Hayne,  p.  11. 

3  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  2,  p.  11. 

*  So.  Ca.  Hist.  &  Gen.  Mag.,  Vol.  2,  p.  147. 


28  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

during  this  term  of  Charles  Pinckney  as  Governor,  Madison's 
first  candidacy.  The  fact  that  the  Federal  candidate  for  the 
Presidency,  for  two  successive  occasions,  was  a  resident  of  the 
city  of  Charleston,  was  well  calculated  to  turn  the  attention  of 
the  youth  of  that  place  to  politics ;  and  it  is  more  than  probable 
that  in  the  meetings  of  the  debating  society  which  were  held  in 
the  schoolroom  of  Mr.  Michael  O' Donovan,  in  Queen  Street,  and 
of  which  Hayne  was  a  member,  politics  were  discussed.  A  con- 
temporary, "a  learned  and  eminent  jurist,"  later  writes:  "In 
that  society  he  took  a  leading  part  and  seldom  failed  to  speak  on 
every  question  chosen  for  discussion.  His  views  were  so  well 
arranged  and  to  the  point  as  to  have  much  weight  in  the  appointed 
debate,  and  if  any  unexpected  question  was  started  in  it  which 
claimed  a  prompt  consideration,  he  seemed  as  ready  to  meet  it  as 
if  it  had  formed  the  subject  of  inquiry."  *  Associations  there  were 
likely  to  have  been  the  reverse  of  Federalistic  and  while  never  an 
extremist,  his  patron  and  adviser,  then  Attorney- General  of  the 
State  and  soon  about  to  begin  his  brief  but  brilliant  career  in 
Congress,  must  have  been  more  of  a  Republican  than  a  Federalist. 
In  the  last  of  this  year,  1809,  John  C.  Calhoun  was  made  an  aide- 
de-camp  of  Governor  Drayton ;  while  William  Lowndes,  who  with 
him  and  Cheves  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  Legislature,  was 
so  lightly  esteemed  by  the  citizens  of  Charleston  as  to  be  defeated 
by  one  William  Turpin  2  in  his  candidacy  to  succeed  Cheves  as 
State  senator  from  Charleston.  Whether  this  was  due  to  Lowndes's 
politics,  which  we  are  told  nearly  cost  him  his  wife  3  (Major  Thomas 
Pinckney  doubting  whether  his  daughter  could  be  given  in  mar- 
riage to  a  Republican),  or  resulted  from  the  fact  of  his  being  less 
well  known  to  the  rank  and  file  of  voters,  is  immaterial ;  for  if  the 

1  O'Neall,  "  Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  2,  p.  22. 

2  Charleston  Courier,  March  17,  1809. 

3  "Life  and  Times  of  William  Lowndes,"  p.  59. 


PARENTAGE,  BIRTH   AND   EARLY  YEARS  29 

Federal  party  still  retained  their  strength  in  the  city,  it  was  dead 
in  the  State  and  nation;  while  Madison,  by  sending  to  the  Senate 
the  name  of  John  Quincy  Adams  as  Minister  to  Russia,  was  split- 
ting it  even  in  Massachusetts;  for  although  at  first  rejected,  in 
March,  by  a  vote  of  17  to  15,1  he  persisted,  and  on  July  7  forced 
him  through  by  19  to  y.2  The  Adamses,  father  and  son,  then 
aligned  themselves  openly  with  the  Republican  party,  and  doubt- 
less it  was  the  evidence  of  the  spirit  of  secession  in  Massachusetts, 
recognized  by  them  two  years  prior  to  the  Massachusetts  Declara- 
tion of  Nullification,  as  much  as  the  official  appointment  of  John 
Quincy  Adams,  that  brought  them  over  to  the  administration. 
In  Charleston,  however,  differences  were  less  sharp,  and  Feder- 
alists and  Republicans  came  together  at  a  meeting  held  in  St. 
Michael's  Church  "to  evince  confidence  in  the  general  govern- 
ment and  their  determination  to  support  the  Union,  Constitution 
and  rights  of  the  country."  3  The  committee  appointed  to  draft 
resolutions  consisted  of  Charles  Pinckney,  Keating  L.  Simons, 
Langdon  Cheves,  Peter  Frenaud,  Judge  Gaillard,  William  Lough- 
ton  Smith,  Thomas  Lee,  John  Blake,  Major  Thomas  Pinckney, 
Dr.  David  Ramsay,  Simon  Magwood,  William  Lowndes,  John 
Ward,  Judge  Johnson  and  John  Geddes.  These  resolutions, 
transmitted  to  the  President,  were  by  him  acknowledged  Sept. 
20,  1809.4  From  this  time  on  the  influence  of  Charles  Pinck- 
ney, then  in  his  fifty-third  year,  waned  rapidly.  In  the  twenty 
years  in  which  his  influence  had  been  so  pronounced,  the  white 
population  had  risen  from  140,000  to  215,451,  and  the  negro  popu- 
lation from  108,000  to  209,919  in  the  State;  while  the  population 
of  Charleston,  the  fifth  city  of  the  Union,  had  increased  from 
16,359  to  24,7ii.5 

1  Courier,  March  22,  1809.  3  Ibid.,  July  7,  1809. 

8  Ibid.,  Aug.  30,  1809 ;  /City  Gazette,  Aug.  30,  1809. 

4  City  Gazette,  Oct.  5,  fi8o9.  5  Charleston  Year  Book,  1883,  p.  393. 


30  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

As  early  as  1800,  Pinckney's  remarkable  views  on  Foreign 
Trade  had  begun  to  be  questioned;  for  the  subject  noticed  for 
debate  at  the  "Debating  Society  meeting  Saturday,"  July  5, 
1800,  by  the  organ  of  his  own  faction,  indicates  it,  "Is  commerce 
productive  of  more  advantages  than  manufactures  are?"  The 
embargo  of  1808  had  reduced  the  value  of  cotton  exports  from 
the  city  one-fourth ; *  but  as  we  have  before  seen,  it  did  not 
prevent  the  citizens  from  coming  together  in  support  of  the  "  Union, 
Constitution  and  rights  of  this  country."  The  period  was  close 
at  hand  when  the  views  of  Langdon  Cheves,  William  Lowndes 
and  John  C.  Calhoun  should  influence  the  State  and  Union  pro- 
foundly; but  in  all  probability  the  individual  then  exerting  the 
greatest  impulse  upon  the  thought  of  the  State  was  the  accom- 
plished and  versatile  Stephen  Elliott,  at  that  time  in  the  morning 
splendor  of  his  mental  development.  Of  him  it  could  be  truly 
said  that  such  was  the  felicity  of  expression  and  purity  of  his 
style  that  he  could  clothe  the  driest  details  of  science  with  a  beauty 
as  rare  as  attractive.  To  the  young  law  student,  seeking  for 
knowledge,  this  mine  of  information  was  invaluable,  and  from  it 
he  drew  supplies  which  enabled  him  in  the  future  to  build  greatly. 

In  all  that  pertained  to  a  metropolitan  city  of  that  date,  includ- 
ing an  excellent  stock  company  at  the  theatre,  Charleston  kept 
pace  with  the  largest  cities  of  the  Union.  Yet  there  is  an  inde- 
pendence of  view  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  city,  indicated  in 
the  announcement  that  the  Charleston  College  contained  at  that 
time  no  pupils,  viz.,  that  the  trustees  of  the  institution  did  not 
desire  that  it  should  have  more  than  30  pupils  to  each  teacher.2 

With  regard  to  the  negro  population  in  the  State,  investigation 
reveals  some  curious  opinions  held  by  the  ruling  whites  of  that 
day.  At  the  May  sessions  presided  over  by  Judge  Smith,  we 
note  these  sentences,   imposed  no  doubt  strictly  in  compliance 

1  Courier,  April  13,  1809.  2  Ibid.,  July  12,  1809. 


PARENTAGE,   BIRTH   AND   EARLY  YEARS  31 

with  the  law,  by  one  famed  for  his  deliverances  upon  the  subject 
of  negro  slavery,  later  in  the  United  States  Senate:  "James 
Handon,  for  killing  a  negro,  fined  £50."  "George  Burns  and 
Robert  Welch,  negro  stealers,  to  be  hanged."  '  Yet  two  years 
prior  we  read  the  following  short  but  extremely  pointed  statement 
of  a  case  decided  by  the  constitutional  court  at  Columbia :  "  In- 
dictment for  an  assault  in  Greenville  district.  David  Burden,  a 
man  of  color,  but  born  of  a  free  white  woman,  was  offered  as  a 
witness  to  give  evidence  in  support  of  the  prosecution,  and  was 
refused  to  be  admitted  by  the  judge  who  presided.  On  motion  it 
was  determined  in  this  court  by  all  the  judges  that  any  person 
of  color,  if  the  issue  of  a  free  white  woman,  is  entitled  to  give  evi- 
dence, and  ought  to  be  admitted  as  a  witness  in  our  courts."2 
Nevertheless  the  committee  to  whom  was  referred  a  petition  in 
the  close  of  the  year  1809,  from  the  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  of 
Charleston,  to  the  Legislature,  the  prayer  of  which  was  apparently 
the  repeal  of  the  capitation  tax,  simply  reported  "that  it  would 
be  extremely  impolitic  to  extend  to  that  class  of  the  population  an 
exemption  from  the  capitation  tax."  3 

1  Courier,  May  27,  1809. 

3  State  v*.  McDowell,  2  Brevard's  Reports,  p.  145. 

8  Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  S.C.,  Nov.  27,  1809. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  GENESIS   OF  NULLIFICATION 

In  his  "  History  of  the  United  States,"  Elson  says :  "  In  the  spring 
of  1810  the  American  Congress  removed  the  restrictions  on  foreign 
commerce,  but  forbade  intercourse  with  England  or  France  if 
either  continued  hostile  to  our  trade.  .  .  .  Napoleon  had  issued 
his  Rambouillet  Decree,  confiscating  all  American  ships  found  in 
French  waters.  But  on  learning  of  this  act  of  Congress,  he 
offered  to  revoke  his  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees."  *  Napoleon 
was  suspected  of  duplicity ;  but  his  attitude  was  not  as  arrogant 
as  that  of  Great  Britain. 

Says  Elson:  "On  the  partial  opening  of  our  trade  with  France, 
British  armed  vessels  were  again  sent  to  blockade  New  York,  and 
amused  themselves  capturing  vessels  bound  for  France  and  im- 
pressing American  seamen.  .  .  .  The  Twelfth  Congress  met  in 
December,  181 1.  It  differed  greatly  from  its  immediate  prede- 
cessors. No  longer  do  we  find  the  temporizing  spirit ;  no  longer 
was  Congress  dominated  by  the  fathers  of  the  Revolution.  A  new 
generation  had  arisen  to  take  charge  of  public  affairs.  .  .  .  The 
leaders  of  this  new  school  were  Henry  Clay  of  Kentucky  and 
John  C.  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina."  He  goes  on  to  state  that 
they  were  ably  seconded  by  Felix  Grundy  of  Tennessee  and 
Langdon  Cheves  and  William  Lowndes  of  South  Carolina,  to 
which  is  appended  a  note  that  Clay  had  served  a  short  time  as 
senator ;  but  this  was  his  first  entrance  into  the  House. 

1  Elson,  "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  3,  pp.  4,  7  and  9. 
32 


THE   GENESIS   OF   NULLIFICATION  33 

Clay  and  Cheves  had  both  played  a  notable  part  in  the  closing 
hours  of  the  Eleventh  Congress,  /in  the  Senate,  entering  Decem- 
ber 13,  1810,1  Clay  had  pushed  through  the  Orleans  territory  bill 2  ( 
and  censured  Pickering  of  Massachusetts  3  for  a  palpable  viola- 
tion of  the  rules  of  the  Senate,  for  the  latter' s  publication  of  a 
confidential  communication  from  the  President.  $  Cheves  did  not 
take  his  seat  in  the  House  until  Jan.  24,  181 1,4  and  therefore 
was  not  present  when  the  even  more  distinguished  representative 
of  Massachusetts  attacked  the  Orleans  bill  with  his  famous  seces- 
sion speech;  but  he  was  present  on  the  occasion  of  the  discussion 
concerning  the  non-intercourse  bill,^from  the  passage  of  which 
flowed  such  remarkable  sequelae  in  Massachusetts  in  the  same 
year.  Judged  by  the  utterances  of  her  most  distinguished  men 
in  Congress,  Massachusetts  was  fairly  seething  with  the  spirit  of 
secession.  Joseph  B.  Varnum  of  Massachusetts  was  Speaker  of 
the  House,  and  Josiah  Quincy  the  most  distinguished  member. 
/  On  the  bill,  to  enable  the  people  of  the  territory  of  Orleans  to 
form  a  Constitution  and  State  government,  and  for  the  admission 
of  such  State  into  the  Union,  I  the  eloquent  member  from  Massa- 
chusetts, Mr.  Quincy,  declared:  "It  is  my  deliberate  opinion 
that  if  this  bill  passes,  the  bonds  of  the  Union  are  virtually  dis- 
solved; that  the  States  which  compose  it  are  free  from  their 
moral  obligations ;  and  as  it  will  be  the  right  of  all,  so  it  will  be 
the  duty  of  some,  to  prepare  definitely  for  a  separation,  amicably 
if  they  can,  violently  if  they  must."  5  For  this  he  was  called 
to  order  by  Mr.  Poindexter  of  the  Mississippi  Territory.  Mr. 
Quincy  repeated  and  justified  the  remark.  Mr.  Poindexter  re- 
quired the  decision  of  the  Speaker,  and  Mr.  Quincy,  somewhat 

1  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,  Vol.  4,  p.  252. 

2  Ibid.,  Vol.  4,  p.  313.  3  Courier,  Jan.  14,  1811. 

4  Charleston  Year  Book,  1884,  p.  343. 

5  Abridgment  of  the  Debatesof  Congress,  Vol.  4,  p.  327  ;  Courier,  Jan.  31,  1811. 

D 


34  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

scornfully,  joined  in  the  request.  The  Speaker  decided  he  was 
not  in  order.  Mr.  Quincy  appealed  from  the  decision,  and  it 
was  reversed  by  56  to  53.  The  contrast  between  this  vote  and 
the  idea  of  the  Union  entertained  by  Charles  Pinckney,  as  indi- 
cated by  his  great  speech  of  1788,  is  striking.  Quincy  was  ex- 
tremely elated  at  the  indorsement  of  his  views.  He  spoke  of  a 
separation  of  the  States  on  the  passage  of  the  bill  as  absolutely 
inevitable.1  In  a  lengthy  argument,  he  contended  that  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  was  a  political  compact,  securing 
certain  rights  to  each  as  partners  in  an  association  established  by 
the  States.2 

These  views  of  Quincy  must  have  attracted  notice.  He  him- 
self proudly  declares  in  the  speech,  "These  observations  are 
not  made  in  a  corner;"  and  certain  it  is  that  the  speech  was 
spread  out  in  full  in  the  Federal  Courier  of  Charleston,  where 
the  young  law  student  Hayne  could  easily  read  it,  whether  at 
that  time  he  sympathized  with  the  view  or  not.  Langdon  Cheves 
was  not  at  the  time  of  its  delivery  in  Congress;  but  he  took  his 
seat  in  time  to  hear  Quincy' s  attack  on  the  non-intercourse  bill, 
and  to  reply  to  that.  This  speech  of  Cheves  does  not  appear  in 
the  abridgment  of  the  debates,  although  allusion  to  the  "  ingenious 
argument"  of  "an  honorable  gentleman  from  South  Carolina 
(Mr.  Cheves),  whom  I  am  very  much  inclined  to  respect,"  does.3 
Mr.  Cheves  stated  that  he  was  not  very  greatly  impressed  with 
the  bill;  but  favored  it  because  "it  would  precipitate  us  upon  a 
particular  enemy,  and  that  the  country  required."  4  As  "it  would 
have  been  suicidal  to  fight  both  England  and  France,"  and  "  France 
presented  no  vulnerable  point,"  there  was  some  merit  in  the  act 
which  precipitated  us  against  but  one,  and  more  discretion  than 

1  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,  Vol.  4,  p.  327. 

2  Ibid.,  Vol.  4,  pp.  328,  329.  3  Ibid.,  Vol.  4,  p.  391. 
4  Courier,  Feb.  19,  181 1. 


THE   GENESIS   OF   NULLIFICATION  35 

that  which  might  have  followed  upon  the  adoption  of  Quincy's 
suggestion  "to  show  ourselves  really  independent;  and  look  to  a 
grateful,  a  powerful  and  then  united  people  for  support  against 
every  aggressor."  But  Cheves  was  not  content  with  the  argu- 
ment of  expediency;  he  showed  that  it  was  not,  as  Gardenier,  an 
opponent  argued,  "when  either  of  the  belligerents  shall  cease  to 
violate  our  rights,"  but  "when  either  of  the  belligerents  shall  so 
revoke  or  modify  edicts,  as  they  the  edicts  shall  cease  to  violate, 
etc.";  while  taking  up  the  contention  of  Quincy  that  the  "de- 
crees were  not  revoked  because  they  were  fundamental  laws  of 
the  Empire  and  the  alleged  revocation,  but  the  act  of  a  minister," 
he  asserted:  "It  is  necessary  for  the  gentleman  to  prove  that  it 
is  not  equally  high  as  authority;  I  deny  it  is  not:  France  is  a 
despotism  .  .  .  when  such  is  the  case,  what  do  you  want  but  a 
declaration  ...  no  man  doubts  its  supremacy."  By  an  over- 
whelming majority  the  bill  became  law;  but  it  provoked  the 
Faneuil  Hall  meeting  nullification  resolutions. 

These  resolutions  have  been  treated  with  great  tenderness  by 
both  Webster  and  McMaster.  It  has  been  claimed  no  force  was 
threatened. 

Forcible  resistance  was  distinctly  threatened.  In  spite  of 
Quincy's  threat  of  secession,  the  enactment  of  the  bill  "  to  per- 
mit the  people  of  Orleans  territory  to  elect  a  convention  to  form 
a  Constitution,  preparatory  to  its  admission  into  the  Union," 
created  no  excitement.  Even  the  debate  on  the  amendment  by 
the  Senate,  inserting  the  word  "white"  1  before  "free  male  in- 
habitants," lacked  fire.  Fisk  of  New  York  did  speak  against  it. 
He  claimed  "that  in  almost  all  the  States,  free  persons,  whether 
black  or  white  or  colored,  if  they  had  the  proper  qualifications 
otherwise,  were  allowed  to  vote  .  .  .  color  was  a  mere  matter  of 
accident.  ...     All  men  were  born  free  and  equal,"   etc.     To 

1  Courier,  Feb.  27,  181 1. 


36  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

which  Sheffey  of  Virginia  briefly  replied  "that  such  doctrines 
would  prostrate  the  civil  institutions  of  Virginia,"  and  that  seemed 
to  end  it.  But  the  passage  of  the  non-intercourse  act  stirred  New 
England.  On  March  30,  at  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  there  was  a 
meeting  at  which  a  preamble  and  numerous  resolutions  were 
adopted,  from  which  the  following  extracts  give  some  idea  of  the 
temper  of  the  people  of  that  section:  "Whereas  the  government 
of  the  United  States  .  .  .  has  for  many  years  past  manifested  a 
disposition  alarmingly  hostile  to  that  commerce,  on  which  the 
prosperity  of  the  New  England  States  essentially  depends,  but 
most  eminently  by  the  late  act  of  Congress,  which  under  the 
pretence  of  coercing  the  only  European  nation  with  whom  we 
have  any  safe  or  honorable  intercourse,  inflicts  a  deadly  wound 
upon  the  commerce  of  our  country.  .  .  .  And  whereas  the  only 
remedy  left  us,  short  of  an  appeal  to  force,  is  a  change  of  our 
national  rulers,  and  this  important  measure  can  only  be  effected 
by  a  corresponding  change  in  the  administration  of  the  State, 
therefore  be  it  resolved:  That  .  .  .  6th,  that  the  act  of  May, 
1810,  presupposed  an  honest,  unequivocal,  unconditional  repeal 
of  all  the  belligerent  decrees,  not  consisting  in  promise  only,  but 
in  actual  and  effective  performance.  Every  citizen  had  a  right 
to  so  construe  that  act  and  to  govern  his  conduct  accordingly. 
Any  law  which  should  have  the  effect  to  make  such  a  just  con- 
struction a  crime,  any  act  which  should  declare  an  event  had 
taken  place  which  had  not  happened  and  should  proceed  to 
punish,  not  those  who  should  hereafter  offend,  but  those  who 
before  innocently  had  judged  according  to  the  truth  of  facts,  must 
not  only  be  ex-post  facto  and  void,  but  unjust,  oppressive  and 
tyrannical;  lastly  that  such  an  unjust,  oppressive  and  tyrannical 
act  we  consider  the  statute  passed  by  Congress  on  the  2d  of  March 
instant,  tending  to  the  ruin  or  impoverishment  of  some  of  the  most 
industrious  and  meritorious  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  that 


THE   GENESIS   OF   NULLIFICATION  37 

the  only  means  short  of  an  appeal  to  force,  to  prevent  such  a 
calamity  (which  heaven  avert),  is  the  election  of  such  men  to  the 
various  offices  in  the  State  government  as  will  oppose  by  peace- 
able but  firm  measures  the  execution  of  laws,  which,  if  persisted 
in,  must  and  will  be  resisted."  * 

This  was  a  claim  to  construe  a  Federal  statute,  decide  it  null 
and  void,  and  a  threat  of  forcible  resistance  to  any  attempt  to  put 
it  in  operation.     Nullification  could  go  no  farther,  and  never  did. 

An  examination  of  the  numerous  and  argumentative  resolutions 
passed  at  this  meeting  discloses  a  perceptible  irritation  against  an 
argument  on  the  line  of  that  of  Cheves.  These  resolutions  were 
set  out  in  full  in  the  Charleston  Courier,  as  well  as  an  attempt  to 
show,  some  three  months  later,2  that  forcible  resistance  was  not 
contemplated.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  just  about  this  time, 
in  South  Carolina,  the  grand  jury  of  his  district,  in  their  present- 
ment, congratulated  the  town  of  Greenville  on  the  elevation  to 
the  bench  3  of  that  judge  who,  from  it,  made  probably  the  strong- 
est argument  against  nullification  ever  made  in  South  Carolina. 
Abraham  Nott,  born  in  Connecticut  in  1767,4  had  left  that  State 
in  1788,  immediately  upon  his  graduation  at  Yale,  had  been 
admitted  to  the  bar  of  South  Carolina  in  1791,  and  represented 
the  State  as  a  Federalist  congressman  in  1800,  voting  awhile  for 
Burr  in  preference  to  Jefferson;  but  on  the  thirty-sixth  ballot 
Nott  withdrew,  and  thus  permitted  Jefferson  to  be  elected.5 

In  December,  181 1,  William  Lowndes  and  John  C.  Calhoun 
took  their  seats  in  the  new  Congress,  of  which  Clay  was  made 
Speaker.  Cheves,  having  already  made  his  mark,  was  given  the 
chairmanship  of  the  important  committee  on  Naval  Establish- 


1  Courier,  April  23,  181 1.  2  Ibid.,  June  28,  181 1. 

3  Ibid.,  May  28,  181 1. 

*  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  1,  p.  121. 

8  Ibid.,  Vol.  1,  p.  121 ;  City  Charleston  Year  Book,  1884,  p.  342. 


38  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

ment; *  but  both  Calhoun  and  Lowndes  made  their  influence 
felt  also*  Calhoun  notably  so  by  a  powerful  speech  in  reply  to 
Randolph  and  in  support  of  the  report  of  the  committee  on  For- 
eign Relations,  of  which  he  was  a  member. 

But  it  was  again  upon  the  matter  with  which  Cheves  was  mainly 
concerned  that  Quincy  took  occasion  to  express  himself,  and  a 
remarkable  expression  it  certainly  is.  "I  confess  to  you,  Mr. 
Speaker,  I  never  can  look  —  indeed,  in  my  opinion  no  xAmerican 
statesman  ought  ever  to  look  —  on  any  question  touching  the 
vital  interests  of  this  nation,  or  of  any  of  its  component  parts 
without  keeping  at  all  times  in  distinct  view  the  nature  of  our 
political  association,  and  the  character  of  the  independent  sov- 
ereignties which  compose  it.  Among  States  the  only  sure  and 
permanent  bond  of  union  is  interest.  And  the  vital  interests  of 
the  States,  although  they  may  sometimes  be  obscured,  can  never, 
for  a  very  long  time,  be  misapprehended.  The  natural  protection 
which  the  essential  interests  of  the  great  component  parts  of  our 
political  association  require,  will  be  sooner  or  later  understood  by 
the  States  concerned  in  those  interests.  If  a  protection  upon  sys- 
tems be  not  provided,  it  is  impossible  that  discontent  should  not 
result.  And  need  I  tell  statesmen  that  when  great  local  discon- 
tent is  combined  in  those  sections  with  great  physical  power, 
and  acknowledged  portions  of  sovereignty,  the  inbred  ties  of 
nature  will  be  too  strong  for  the  artificial  ties  of  parchment  com- 
pact?" 2  It  must  be  remembered  that  Quincy  was  esteemed  at 
this  time  the  ablest  Federalist  in  Congress,  and  his  speeches  were 
spread  out  in  full  in  the  Charleston  Courier.  He  seems  to  have 
supported  the  bill  for  the  naval  establishment;  but  what  is  to  be 
understood  from  this  declaration  to  his  constituents?  "While  I 
am  at  this  point,  I  cannot  refrain  from  noticing  a  strange  solecism 

1  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,  Vol.  4,  p.  477. 
3  Ibid.,  Vol.  4,  p.  499. 


THE   GENESIS   OF   NULLIFICATION 


39 


which  seems  to  prevail  touching  the  term  'flag.'  It  is  talked 
about  as  though  there  was  something  mysterious  in  its  very  nature, 
as  though  a  rag  with  certain  stripes  and  stars  upon  it  tied  to  a 
stick,  and  called  a  flag,  was  a  wizard's  wand  and  entailed  security 
on  everything  under  it  or  within  its  sphere."  *  Where  such  ex- 
pressions were  listened  to,  it  is  scarcely  surprising  that  old  John 
Adams,  supporting  the  administration,  was  termed  an  "apostate." 

The  Federalists  of  Charleston  were  also  opposed  to  the  war; 
but  they  did  not  carry  their  opposition  so  far.  Nevertheless,  at  a 
non-partisan  meeting,  where  they  had  the  brains,  although  their 
opponents  the  majority,  by  a  cleverly  drawn  amendment,  pre- 
pared by  Keating  L.  Simons,  they  almost  succeeded  in  stripping 
the  resolutions  in  support  of  same  of  any  force.  Yet  by  indiscreet 
comment  a  clever  young  Federalist,  who  had  participated,  drew 
down  upon  himself  the  prophecy  that,  politically,  he  had  slain 
himself. 

The  disclosures  of  the  Henry  letters  probably  did  something 
to  cool  Quincy's  fire;  for  on  the  admission  of  Louisiana,  by  a 
vote  of  79  to  23,  he  seems  to  have  made  no  further  comment  on 
the  separation,  which  he  had  declared  was  inevitable,  should  it 
come  to  pass,  and  on  June  3,  Mr.  Calhoun  from  the  committee 
on  Foreign  Relations,  to  whom  was  referred  the  message  of  the 
President,  made  a  report,  stating  at  large  the  causes  and  reasons 
of  a  war  with  Great  Britain,  and  by  a  vote  of  78  to  45  war  was 
declared.  The  three  representatives  from  South  Carolina,  —  Cal- 
houn, Cheves  and  Lowndes  —  were  after  the  Speaker,  Clay,  the 
leading  members  of  the  House;  but  D.  R.  Williams  also  had 
acquired  influence.  In  a  committee  of  the  whole,  Cheves  not  in- 
frequently carried  the  House  in  opposition  to  Clay;  but  neither 
Lowndes,  Williams  nor  he  was  as  close  to  the  administration 
party  as  Calhoun.     Indeed,  all  three  of  these  declined  to  attend 

1  Courier,  Feb.  28.  181 2. 


40  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

the  caucus '  which  renominated  Madison,  which  Calhoun  did 
attend,  and  the  ground  they  gave,  or  one  of  the  grounds,  was 
that  a  caucus  of  a  party,  at  which  82  were  present  and  96  absent, 
was  not  representative  of  the  party. 

/  At  the  approach  of  war,  Hayne,  although  he  had  not  yet  at- 
tained his  majority,  bis  examination  for  admission  was  approach- 
jng,  and  with  the  death  of  Mr.  Cheves's  partner  much  extra  work 
must  have  been  thrown  upon  him,  enlisted  in  the  Charleston  Cadet 
Infantry,  of  which  Keating  L.  Simons  was  captain,  and  within  a 
month  after  the  declaration  of  war  he  was  made  a  lieutenant. 
His  brother,  Arthur  P.  Hayne,  had  two  years  previous  risen  to  the 
grade  of  captain  in  the  regular  army,  and  was  to  see  service  and 
win  the  commendation  and  affectionate  regard  of  Andrew  Jack- 
son; but  the  younger  brother  saw  no  active  service.  There 
seems  to  have  existed  an  impression  that  even  at  this  early  period 
he  delivered  a  notable  speech  before  the  assembled  troops;  but 
this  has  evidently  been  confounded  with  his  offering  a  toast  to  the 
American  soldier,  which  indicates  quite  a  familiarity  with  Ossian, 
a  year  later  when  he  was  chosen  orator  of  the  '76  society  to  speak 
July  4,  1814;  but  in  this  year,  1812,  he  must  have  been  too  much 
occupied.  He  must  have  been  admitted  to  the  bar  in  October 
of  that  year;  for  Mr.  Cheves's  partner  having  died  October  1, 
by  the  17th  the  two  following  notices  appear:  — 

"The  law  business  of  the  late  Amos  B.  Northrop  has  been  put 
into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  attorney  at  law,  from 
whom  clients  will  receive  every  necessary  information.  .  .  . 

"  Claudia  M.  Northrop,  Administratrix, 
"  Richard  Cunningham,  Administrator." 

"  The  subscriber  will  continue  the  business  of  Langdon  Cheves, 
Cheves  and  Northrop  and  the  late  A.  B.  Northrop  on  his  own 

1  Courier,  May  30,  181 2. 


THE   GENESIS   OF   NULLIFICATION  41 

account  at  the  office  lately  occupied  by  Mr.  Northrop,  36  Meet- 
ing Street.  Clients  are  requested  to  call  and  make  such  arrange- 
ments as  they  may  think  proper. 

"  Robert  Y.  Hayne."  * 

A  month  before  his  majority,  therefore,  Hayne  was  launched  in 
his  career  as  a  lawyer,  having  succeeded  to  the  business  of  the 
most  prosperous  lawyer  in  Charleston,  then  just  having  been  re- 
elected to  Congress  over  John  Rutledge,  the  son  of  the  Dictator. 

As  chairman  of  the  committee  of  Ways  and  Means  and  of  the 
select  committee  on  Naval  Establishment,  Cheves  wielded  an  in- 
fluence in  Congress  second  only  to  Clay,  if  second  at  all  to  any 
one,  and  with  Lowndes  and  Calhoun,  his  illustrious  associates, 
he  shared  that  influence  in  the  politics  of  South  Carolina  which 
had  been  formerly  wielded  by  Charles  Pinckney,  the  founder  of 
the  Republican  party  in  the  State.  As  an  indication  of  the  num- 
ber of  talented  men  at  this  period  who  interested  themselves  in 
politics,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  Lowndes  was  unsuccessfully 
opposed  by  that  accomplished  scholar,  Stephen  Elliott;2  while 
Benjamin  Yancey  of  Edgefield  entered  the  lists  against  Calhoun. 
The  war  fever  was  too  strong,  however,  for  the  Federalists  to  hope 
for  success.  Their  sentiments  with  regard  to  it  were  not  the 
sentiments  of  the  general  mass.  While  they  were  toasting,  "  The 
war,  however  we  may  differ  with  regard  to  its  expediency,  we 
will  lay  down  our  lives  in  its  support,"  3  the  Saucy  Jack  was 
being  launched,  pierced  for  16  guns,  and  the  first  two  cruises  of 
this  little  privateer  of  170  tons  burden  were  somewhat  calculated 
to  establish  the  expediency  of  the  struggle;  for  within  the  year 
she  had  captured  8  or  9  sail,4  one  of  them  being  the  British  ship 
Mentor,  which  she  relieved  of  60,000  pounds  sterling.     Farther 

1  Charleston  City  Gazette,  Oct.  17,  181 2.  3  Ibid.,  July  16,  181 2. 

2  Ibid.,  Oct.  19,  181 2.  *  Ibid.,  Oct.  26,  181 2. 


42  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

north,  however,  the  war  was  not  popular,  and,  upon  the  result 
being  known  of  Clinton's  defeat  by  Madison  for  the  Presidency, 
the  Connecticut  Mirror  published  the  following  bit  of  doggerel:  — 

"The  day  is  past,  the  election's  o'er, 
And  Madison  is  king  once  more. 
Ye  vagabonds  of  every  land, 
Cut-throats  and  knaves,  a  patriot  band; 
Ye  demagogues,  lift  up  your  voice; 
Mobs  and  banditti,  all  rejoice."  1 

On  the  reproduction  of  this  by  the  Federalist  Courier,  a  cor- 
respondent in  the  City  Gazette  alludes  to  that  journal  as  "this 
debased  and  degraded  paper,  the  Courier."  Madison's  gentle 
retort  to  the  opposition  member,  who,  at  the  launch  of  the  Adams, 
remarked,  "  What  a  pity  the  ship  of  state  doesn't  glide  as  smoothly 
as  this  vessel  does,"  described  the  situation  better,  "It  would, 
sir,  if  her  crew  would  do  their  duty  as  well." 

That  the  bulk  of  Mr.  Cheves's  clients  must  have  been  content 
to  intrust  their  affairs  to  young  Hayne,  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  within  six  months  of  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  appeared 
as  counsel  in  four  cases  before  the  constitutional  Court  of  appeals.2 
In  the  first  as  associate  counsel,  in  the  second  as  leading  counsel, 
in  the  other  two,  alone.  But  he  finds  time  now  also  for  other 
interests.  A  project  being  launched  having  for  its  purpose  the 
honoring  of  a  young  Carolinian  naval  lieutenant,  particularly 
recommended  by  Captain  Lawrence  of  the  Hornet  for  his  be- 
havior on  the  occasion  of  her  encounter  with  the  Peacock,  the 
young  man  having  also  been  aboard  the  Constitution  during  her 
action  with  both  the  Guerrihe  and  the  Java,  the  name  of  the 
over-zealous  young  Federalist,  before  mentioned,  J.  W.  Toomer, 
is  suggested  with  Keating  L.  Simons  and  R.  Y.  Hayne  as  a  com- 
mittee to  receive  the  popular  contributions  and  purchase  "the 

1  City  Gazette,  Jan.  20,  1813.  2  Brevard's  Reports,  Vol.  13,  pp.  342-379. 


THE   GENESIS   OF   NULLIFICATION  43 

elegant  sword "  1  to  be  presented.  The  committee  was  com- 
posed of  five  members,  three  of  whom  at  least  were  men  some 
seven  or  eight  years  Hayne's  seniors,  —  D.  E.  Huger,  William 
Lance  and  Keating  L.  Simons,  the  last  named  being  fully  fifteen 
years  older,  a  distinguished  lawyer  in  his  prime.  That  the  young 
attorney,  R.  Y.  Hayne,  with  H.  H.  Bacot 2  should  have,  there- 
fore, been  placed  on  this  committee,  was  a  tribute  to  his  popu- 
larity, especially  as  it  appears  efforts  were  not  lacking  in  behalf 
of  a  clever  young  man  of  his  own  age,  which  were  unsuccessful. 
The  sword  having  been  presented  to  Lieutenant  Shubrick,  Hayne 
interested  himself  in  other  matters,  and  just  a  week  or  so  prior  to 
the  selection  of  himself  and  young  Toomer  as  the  annual  orators 
of  their  respective  societies,  Daniel  Webster  makes  his  first  ap- 
pearance in  Congress  as  Quincy  retires. 

Throughout,  Quincy  had  opposed  the  war.  His  last  great 
effort  was  in  opposition  to  the  bill  for  increasing  the  army,  re- 
ported by  D.  R.  Williams  of  South  Carolina.  Quincy's  utterances 
were  so  intemperate  as  to  cause  Randolph,  on  the  same  side,  to 
protest;  but  on  account  of  the  illness  of  Williams,  Cheves  closed 
the  debate  with  one  of  the  most  complete  vindications  of  the  war 
ever  made.  His  speech,  temperate  and  full,  contains  all  the  ar- 
guments which  American  historians  have  subsequently  adopted  3 
in  its  behalf. 

On  that  occasion,  Cheves  said  in  part :  "  Gentlemen  fruitful  in 
epithets,  yet  rather  fruitful  in  the  abundance  than  in  their  variety, 
have  called  this  an  unjust,  wicked  and  wanton  war.  I,  on  the 
contrary,  assert  it  to  be  a  just  and  necessary  war.  .  .  .  Great 
Britain  has  been  properly  selected  as  the  first  object  of  our  hos- 
tility. When  a  proposition  was  made  to  include  France  as  well 
as  Great  Britain  in  the  declaration  of  war,  gentlemen  on  neither 

1  Courier,  May  1,  1813.  2  Ibid.,  May  11,  1813. 

3  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,  Vol.  4,  p.  697. 


\ 


44  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

side  of  the  House  did  support  it.  The  opposition  prints  through- 
out the  Union  laughed  it  to  scorn.  .  .  .  The  government,  obliged 
to  resist,  was  obliged  to  select  its  enemy.  Should  France  have  been 
selected  ?  With  the  blood  of  our  citizens  insultingly  slaughtered, 
without  the  slightest  provocation,  on  the  shores  of  our  own  terri- 
tory, unatoned  for  till  the  moment  of  the  declaration  of  war; 
with  the  habitual  impressment  of  our  seamen  in  every  sea;  with 
the  continual  and  reiterated  violation  of  your  rights  to  seek  where 
you  choose  a  market  for  your  native  produce:  all  before  your 
eyes,  and  with  no  hope  of  discontinuance  of  these  injuries,  we  are 
told  that  we  ought  to  have  diverted  our  enmity  from  Great  Britain 
and  directed  it  against  France.  Where,  sir,  could  we  attack 
France?  Where,  sir,  are  her  colonies  into  which  we  could  carry 
our  arms?  Where  could  we  subject  to  invasion  her  provinces? 
Where  are  her  ships?  Where  her  commerce?  Where  could  we 
have  carried  against  her  any  of  the  operations  of  war?  Would 
the  chivalry  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  other  side  of  the  House  have 
suggested  an  invasion  of  France  ?  An  honorable  gentleman  from 
New  York  (Mr.  Gold)  said  it  would  not  have  required  another 
man  nor  another  ship  to  have  resisted  France.  But  how,  I  pray 
you?  Because  such  resistance  would  have  been  confined  to  the 
idle  and  nugatory  act  of  declaring  it.  .  .  .  Sir,  I  feel  neither  as  a 
Frenchman  nor  a  Briton,  but  as  an  American.  As  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States  I  have  no  affection  for  any  other  country.  .  .  . 
Sir,  the  government  did  right  in  discriminating  between  Britain 
and  France  and  selecting  the  former.  It  was  the  only  mode  of 
making  practical  resistance.  The  world  would  have  laughed  at 
us  had  we  declared  war  against  France,  who  was  no  longer  able 
to  injure  us,  whom  we  could  not  assail  with  effect,  and  left  the 
unceasing  injuries  of  Great  Britain  to  go  on  unresisted  and  un- 
resented.  The  world  would  have  considered  it  as  a  mere  cover 
for  our  pusillanimity.  .  .  .     Men  imprisoned  on  board  ships-of- 


THE   GENESIS   OF   NULLIFICATION  45 

war  scattered  over  the  ocean  and  on  distant  stations,  how  could 
they  apply  to  Mr.  Lyman  in  London  and  give  their  names  ?  .  .  . 
It  is  an  abuse  such  as  cannot  be  tolerated  by  an  independent 
nation.  It  is  one  which  ought  to  be  resisted  by  war."  J#-/' 
— ■»  On  the  vote  which  immediately  followed,  the  bill  was  passed 
by  77  to  42. 

Yet  scarcely  a  week  earlier  he  had  made  an  even  greater  speech 
on  the  Merchants'  Bonds.  Of  this  O'Neall  says,  "Washington 
Irving,  who  heard  it,  said  it  was  the  first  speech  he  had  ever  heard 
which  gave  him  an  idea  of  ancient  eloquence  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  great  Greeks  and  Romans  spoke.  "JP  For  him  to 
speak  at  all  on  this  occasion  required  unanimous  consent  from  a 
committee,  reporting  unfavorably,  to  permit  his  amendment. 
The  speech  is  a  model  of  argument,  and  it  swept  the  House  to  his 
view,  despite  the  fact  that  the  Speaker,  Clay,  opposed  it  with  all 
the  force  of  argument  at  his  command.  Any  attempt  to  repro- 
duce parts  of  this  perfect  whole  would  mar  it ;  but  the  conclusion 
of  the  peroration  of  Cheves's  speech  is  given,  as  it  indicates  the 
change  from  Pinckney's  view.  Speaking  of  Edward  III  of  Eng- 
land, he  says:  "He  raised  armies,  equipped  fleets,  spent  vast  sums 
on  internal  improvements;  such  demands  it  was  thought  the 
art  of  making  gold  alone  could  supply.  The  historian  says, 
He  cherished  Commerce"  Ijft.  O 

1  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,  Vol.  4,  p.  697. 
8  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  1,  p.  134. 
*City  Gazette,  Jan.  11,  1813,  and  Jan.  12,  1813. 


CHAPTER  III 

CONDITION  OF  STATE  AND  FEDERAL  UNION  DURING  WAR  OF  l8l2. 
hayne's    ADMISSION    TO    THE    BAR.      HIS    MARRIAGE    A    YEAR 
LATER  AT  TWENTY-TWO.      THE    GREATEST  MAN    IN  THE  HOUSE 
OF   REPRESENTATIVES 
« 

The  cotton-planting  industry  could  hardly  have  made  much 
progress  up  to  this  time,  and  the  fact  mentioned  in  the  press, 
that  a  merino  ram,  imported  from  Cadiz,  brought  $510  at  auction,1 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  diversity  in  industries  later,  unfor- 
tunately, abandoned. 

At  the  Charleston  theatre,  Cooper  frequently  appeared,  of 
whom  the  Courier  declared,  "The  most  erudite  characters  in 
the  United  States  have  pronounced  a  finished  actor,  the  equal  of 
Cooke;"  while  a  year  later,  in  the  same  paper,  is  a  criticism  of 
Morse  as  Falstaff  in  the  "  First  Part  of  King  Henry  IV,"  somewhat 
akin  to  Brandes's  interesting  review  of  that  play:  "The  historical 
play  of  Henry  IV,  ever  since  its  production  in  1598,  has  never 
failed  to  attract  the  attention  and  excite  the  admiration  of  successive 
ages;  while  it  inspired  the  attempts  of  the  best  actors.  To  Jack 
Falstaff  the  palm  of  applause  has  been  universally  awarded;  nor 
is  it  a  small  test  of  its  difficulty  of  personation  and  its  dramatic 
importance  to  say  that  the  representation  of  this  personage  has 
been  attempted,  and  only  attempted,  by  many  performers  of  ac- 
knowledged merit.  .  .  .  This  character  requires  superior  powers 
of  gesture  and  uncommon  flexibility  of  voice.  ...     In  all  his 

1  City  Gazette,  May  21,  1810. 
46 


CONDITIONS   DURING   WAR   OF    1812  47 

tragical  performances,  Mr.  Morse  has  adopted  a  happy  medium 
between  the  dull  dignity  of  Fennell  and  the  ranting  rhetorick  of 
Cooper."  1 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  launch  at  Charleston  of  the 
Saucy  Jack,  170  tons,  90  feet  deck,  24  feet  beam,  76  keel.  But 
this  was  nothing  unusual  in  the  way  of  shipbuilding;  for  three 
years  before  the  ship  Carolina  had  been  launched  at  Beaufort, 
"frame  entirely  of  live  oak,"  2  while  the  fitting  out  of  gunboats 
from  that  port  was  not  unusual." 

Of  the  temper  and  disposition  of  the  people,  we  may  judge 
by  the  fact  that  Walter  Taylor  was  in  this  year,  18 13,  tried 
and  convicted  in  Edgefield  for  sending  a  challenge  to  his  son-in- 
law  to  fight  a  duel ;  was  sentenced  to  two  months'  imprisonment,  a 
fine  of  $300  and  compelled  to  furnish  recognizances  in  the  sum  of 
$1000  to  keep  the  peace.3 

General  Charles  Cotesworth  Pinckney  deserves  credit  for  in- 
ducing the  Cincinnati  Society  to  take  the  public  stand  it  did  against 
the  practice ;  but  Dr.  Philip  Moser  was  the  author  of  the  law. 

In  the  first  part  of  this  year  two  young  men  graduated  at  the 
South  Carolina  College,  destined  to  play  quite  a  part  in  the  politics 
of  the  State,  —  H.  L.  Pinckney,  the  son  of  Charles  Pinckney,  then 
serving  his  last  term  as  representative  in  the  Legislature,  and  a 
brilliant  Virginian,  W.  C.  Preston,  who  had  happened  to  stop 
in  Columbia,  on  his  way  to  Florida,  and  concluded  to  make  it  his 
home.  H.  L.  Pinckney  was  the  valedictorian  of  his  class,  and 
his  subject,  "The  Comparative  Excellence  of  American  Govern- 
ment." 4 

Between  this  Pinckney  family  and  young  Hayne  there  must  have 


1  Courier,  April  24,  181 1. 

2  Ibid.,  April  8,  1809.     Letter  from  Ralph  Izard,  Jr.,  to  his  mother,  Oct.  27, 
1808,  original  in  possession  of  Mrs.  Arthur  M.  Parker,  Georgetown,  S.C. 

3  City  Gazette,  May  10,  1813.  *  Ibid.,  Jan.  4,  1813. 


48  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

existed  quite  an  intimacy;  for  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  November  3, 
Hayne  married  Miss  Frances  Henrietta  Pinckney,  the  daughter  of 
Charles  Pinckney;  but  of  the  young  lady  no  picture  has  been 
preserved.  Whether  he  met  her  at  the  great  national  ball, 
which  was  given  in  Charleston  about  this  time,  in  commemoration 
of  the  naval  victories,  or  had  known  her  for  a  while,  there  are  no 
means  of  arriving  at;  but  at  twenty-two  Hayne's  married  life 
began. 

In  the  Legislature  of  that  year  an  attempt  was  made  by 
Johnson  of  Edgefield  and  Gist  of  York  to  overthrow  the  Free 
School  System.  Yancey  of  Edgefield,  Huger,  Lance  and  Crafts 
of  Charleston  resisted  it,  and  the  attempt  failed.1  Indeed,  the 
members,  described  as  representative  yeomanry,  were  feeling  the 
tax  to  maintain  it  during  the  war,  and  the  great  benefit  of  it  had 
not  yet  been  demonstrated. 

In  Congress,  Daniel  Webster  had  signalized  his  entrance  by 
the  introduction  of  his  celebrated  resolutions  concerning  the 
Berlin  and  Milan  decrees.  This  brought  him  into  collision 
with  Calhoun,  who  was  not  opposed  to  the  request  for  information, 
but  objected  to  the  form.  Of  the  resolutions,  the  editor  of 
the  Abridgment  of  Debates  says:  " These  resolutions  gave  rise 
to  the  principal  debate  of  the  session,  and  the  answers  to  them 
were  expected  to  inculpate  the  government  for  concealing  a 
knowledge  of  the  repeal  of  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  until  after 
the  declaration  of  war,  and  thereby  bringing  on  the  war  with  Great 
Britain;  but  the  answers  were  different  from  what  had  been  ex- 
pected, and  gave  an  advantage  to  the  administration."  2  Had  Cal- 
houn been  able  to  hold  in  hand  his  own  side,  or  rather  had  they 
followed  him,  the  opposition  would  not  have  gained  anything,  even 
by  the  debate;  but  some  administration  members,  among  them 
that  old  Revolutionary  warrior,  Butler  of  South  Carolina,  broke 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  16,  1813.  2  Abridgment  of  Debates,  Vol.  5,  p.  19. 


CONDITIONS   DURING  WAR   OF   1812 


49 


away.  "  I  will  not  vote,"  said  he,  "  for  resolutions  that  I  disapprove 
of  merely  to  gratify  those  whom  I  am  persuaded  cannot  be  con- 
ciliated. The  fear  of  being  accused  of  having  an  intention  to 
suppress  useful  information  will  not  move  me.  Conscious  of  the 
rectitude  of  my  own  intentions,  I  shall  give  no  vote  through  fear  of 
accusations  founded  in  falsehood."  1  The  resolutions  of  inquiry 
were  passed  by  an  immense  majority,  dropping,  however,  a  vote 
at  each  to  the  fourth,  where  four  more  joined  the  minority,  and  at 
the  fifth  the  strength  of  the  latter  was  doubled.  The  victory  of 
the  opposition,  however,  as  has  been  shown,  proved  a  barren  one. 

Cheves's  position  in  the  House  was  very  remarkable.  He  was 
not  as  distinctly  the  leader  of  the  administration  forces  on  the 
floor  as  Calhoun,  not  as  close  to  Clay,  the  Speaker,  and  yet,  when 
he  opposed  Clay  in  committee  of  the  whole,  he  generally  had  both 
Calhoun  and  Lowndes  behind  him.  Grundy,  however,  supported 
Clay  almost  invariably.  Not  very  unnaturally  the  Speaker  ap- 
pointed another  member  chairman  of  the  committee  of  Ways  and 
Means;  and  Cheves,  finding  himself  out  of  touch  with  his  party, 
participated  but  slightly  in  the  debates  with  which  the  Thirteenth 
Congress  opened.  Against  the  attempt  of  the  Administration 
party  to  lay  an  embargo  that  summer,  Calhoun,  Lowndes  and  he 
voted,  and  the  Senate  refusing  to  concur,  it  failed;  but  on  the 
renewal,  in  the  second  session,  in  December,  Calhoun  went  with 
his  party.  Not  so  Cheves  and  Lowndes; 2  and  the  former,  who 
had  kept  silent  throughout  the  debate,  rose  at  the  conclusion  to 
make  the  following  remarks:  "Sir,  I  have  no  influence  in  this 
House.  What  little  I  might  once  have  claimed  is  gone;  I  have 
dared  to  dissent  from  the  course  laid  down  for  the  government  of 
the  majority,  and  consequently  have  bartered,  for  the  privilege  of 
thinking  for  myself,  all  right  and  share  in  prescribing  the  policy  to 
be  pursued,     I  perceive  and,  with  pain,  make  the  confession,  that 

1  Ibid.,  Vol.  5,  p.  56.  2  Courier,  Dec.  23,  1813. 


50  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

these  men  are  so  predetermined  in  their  course  as  that  the  au- 
thority of  an  angel  could  not  arrest  the  whirlwind  of  destruction, 
which  their  infatuation  has  raised ;  and  I  pray  God,  in  working  the 
ruin  of  themselves  and  the  administration,  they  may  not  seal  the 
ruin  of  my  country."  Yet,  when  possibly  in  the  spirit  of  retalia- 
tion the  opposition,  under  the  leadership  of  Webster  and  the 
more  bitter  Grosvenor  of  New  York,  developed  their  incessant 
attacks  upon  the  President  and  the  conduct  of  the  war,  Cheves  voted 
steadily  with  his  party.  On  Calhoun,  however,  lay  the  burden  of 
the  administration's  defence,  and  well  he  acquitted  himself  of  his 
task.  Early  in  1814  he  and  Grosvenor  came  to  a  clash,  and  a  duel 
seemed  inevitable.  The  Speaker  and  Senator  Bibb  of  Georgia 
were  Calhoun's  seconds;1  but  the  matter  was  adjusted  without  a 
meeting. 

On  Clay's  resignation  to  accept  the  appointment  of  commis- 
sioner to  negotiate  peace,  Grundy  was  brought  forward  as  the  can- 
didate for  the  Republican  party  caucus  for  Speaker  and  beaten 
by  Cheves,  94  to  59.* 

Of  this  remarkable  man,  so  little  known,  John  Belton  O'Neall, 
who  graduated  from  the  South  Carolina  College  with  distinction 
in  the  same  year  as  Pinckney  and  Preston,  says:  "Mr.  Cheves's 
reply  to  Gaston,  Gouveneur  (Grosvenor)  and  Webster 3  was 
perfectly  overwhelming,  and  crowned  the  Republican  party  with 
that  wreath  of  meritorious  patriotism  which  gave  them  ever 
after  the  ascendency."  Whether  this  was  the  speech  which  has 
been  before  alluded  to  as  made  for  his  colleague  Williams,  or  one 
made  after  his  elevation  to  the  Speakership,  it  is  difficult  to  deter- 
mine. Both  were  great  efforts.  At  this  time  Cheves  was  in  the 
full  maturity  of  his  physical  and  mental  powers.     Born  in  Abbe- 

1  City  Gazette,  Jan.  7,  1814. 

a  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,  Vol.  5,  p.  157. 

•  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  1,  p.  134. 


CONDITIONS   DURING  WAR   OF    1812  51 

ville,  Sept.  17,  1776,1  he  came  to  Charleston  at  the  same  age 
as  had  his  young  law  student;  but  his  means  were  even  more 
straitened,  and  to  maintain  himself  he  became  a  merchant's 
clerk,  filling  at  the  age  of  sixteen  that  position,  a  confidential 
clerk,  which  is  recited  as  one  of  the  evidences  of  the  preternatural 
ability  of  Alexander  Hamilton.  At  eighteen  he  began  the  study 
of  law,  and  at  thirty-two  was  made  Attorney-General  of  South 
Carolina.  As  to  the  estimate  in  which  he  was  held  by  intelli- 
gent observers  of  public  events,  the  following  description  of  himself 
and  other  members  of  the  House,  from  the  New  York  Evening 
Post  of  March  15,  18 14,  is  submitted:  — 

"Mr.  Webster  is  a  young  Ajax  in  political  disquisition,  and 
gives  every  promise  of  a  towering  politician.  Mr.  Calhoun  is  a 
young  man  of  great  sensibility  —  has  had  the  advantage  of  an 
excellent  education,  aided  by  astonishing  powers  of  memory  — 
recites  in  debate  the  anecdotes  and  incidents  of  both  modern  and 
ancient  history  with  wonderful  facility  and  accuracy  —  is  dex- 
terous in  the  management  of  a  political  cause  —  exercises  a  goodly 
share  of  zeal  —  commands  a  rapid  though  limited  eloquence,  little 
embellished  by  metaphor  or  imagery  —  supported  by  a  charm- 
ing metaphysical  analysis  and  prompted  by  an  apt  sagacity 
almost  peculiar  to  himself  on  the  floor,  where  he  exhibits.  He 
is  the  leader  of  what  is  called  the  Administration  party  in  the 
House.  Mr.  Lowndes  is  one  of  the  most  judicious,  modest  and 
imposing  men  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  His  voice  and 
figure  detract  greatly  from  the  pretensions,  which  he  might 
otherwise  justly  set  up,  and  in  claiming  which  he  would  be  justi- 
fied by  the  properties  of  his  mind.  He  is  reputed  on  all  hands 
a  scholar  and  a  philosopher,  and  is  universally  allowed  to  be  a 
most  honorable  man.  .  .  .  \  But  who  is  the  greatest  man  in  the 
House   of  Representatives?     I  relinquish  my  judgment   to  the 

1  Ibid.,  Vol.  1,  p.  133. 


52  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

decision  of  the  question  already  pronounced  by  the  House  itself. 
While  party  spirit  predominates,  it  is  more  generally  fallacious 
and  unprofitable  to  look  to  the  result  of  an  election.  But  when 
that  spirit  is  rolling  in  its  flood  tide,  if  we  should  see  a  vote  common 
to  both  sides  raise  to  eminence  an  individual,  we  should  regard 
that  result  as  manifesting  something  out  of  the  usual  course.  The 
gentleman  who  now  presides,  holds  the  chair  by  such  a  vote.  Then, 
reader,  if  you  would  be  informed  who  is  the  greatest  man  in  that 
House,  watch  the  mace,  and  you  will  unerringly  decide  for  your- 
self. Whatever  indication  it  was  wont  to  manifest,  it  now 
rises  or  descends,  as  the  greatest  man  in  the  House  rises 
or  descends.  The  elevation  of  Mr.  Cheves  to  the  chair  was  a 
spontaneous  concession  to  his  unequalled  excellence  from  both 
sides  of  the  House.  He  is  the  only  Republican  who  at  the  present 
moment  could  have  obtained  one  Federal  vote  as  the  Speaker, 
and  he  is  the  only  member  who  is  not  a  thoroughgoing  friend 
of  the  administration,  who  could  have  received  a  great  number  of 
votes  from  the  Republican  side.  Even  if  Mr.  Clay  was  again  on. 
the  floor,  if  would  be  impossible  for  him  to  vie  with  his  successor. 
To  what  is  owing  this  voluntary,  unsolicited  tribute  to  the  claims 
of  Mr.  Cheves  ?  It  is  that  all  consider  him  matchless  in  eloquence, 
profound  in  his  researches,  judicious  in  his  measures,  pursuing 
the  experience  of  ages,  relying  on  the  demonstration  of  facts,  re- 
jecting the  hypotheses  of  ignorance  or  infatuation,  crowned  with 
the  talents  of  an  exalted  caste,  adorned  with  all  the  charms  of 
charity  and  benevolence,  enshrined  by  honored,  imperishable 
integrity,  loving  his  country  more  than  himself."  *  J 

Such  was  the  estimate  of  Cheves  at  thirty-eight  and  Lowndes  at 
thirty-two. 

The  comment  provoked  by  Hayne's  first  public  utterance  is 
quite  different.     It  is  almost  amusing ;  but  it  is  most  interestingly 

1  Courier,  March  12,  1814,  from  New  York  Evening  Post. 


CONDITIONS   DURING   WAR   OF   1812 


53 


human.  It  can  best  be  described  as  a  veritable  "tempest  in  a 
tea-pot."  Yet  to  the  careful  investigator  there  is  not  lacking  in 
this  too  extravagantly  praised  and  too  harshly  criticised  oration 
the  germ  of  a  great  thought,  a  grasp  upon  his  subject  most  remark- 
able for  one  of  his  years. 


CHAPTER  IV 

HAYNE'S   ORATION   BEFORE   THE    "'76"    SOCIETY   AND   THE 
BEGINNING    OF    HIS    POLITICAL    CAREER 

It  had  been  the  custom  in  Charleston  to  have  an  oration, 
delivered  annually  before  the  members  of  the  '"76,"  and  also  one 
before  the  members  of  the  "Revolutionary"  Society,  on  the  4th 
of  July.  One  was  delivered  in  St.  Philip's,  the  other  at  St. 
Michael's  Church.  Their  delivery,  within  the  sacred  walls,  did 
not  prevent  the  one  from  being  well  seasoned  with  Republican, 
the  other  with  Federal,  politics.  To  be  selected  as  the  orator 
was  a  distinct  honor,  which  the  most  gifted  speakers  of  the  day 
were  proud  to  accept ;  therefore  for  the  young  Hayne  to  be  chosen 
before  he  had  attained  the  age  of  twenty-two,  was  an  indication  of 
the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  his  fellow-members,  and  such 
also  must  be  said  of  Mr.  J.  W.  Toomer,  who  was  but  a  few  years 
older.  Both  of  the  young  men  had  lately  been  married,  and  this 
doubtless  made  them  the  more  eager  to  excel;  so  on  the  day 
appointed,  escorted  by  the  militia  company  usually  attendant  on 
such  occasions,  they  proceeded  to  the  respective  churches. 

Keating  L.  Simons  having  been  raised  to  a  majority,  Hayne 
was  now  the  captain  of  the  Cadet  Riflemen,  who,  under  their 
first  lieutenant,  escorted  their  captain.  Hayne  being  a  Republican, 
his  politics  pleased  the  City  Gazette  of  that  persuasion,  and  it 
declared  his  oration  had  never  been  surpassed.  The  Federal 
Courier  hardly  goes  so  far.  The  comment  of  that  paper  on  the 
two  speeches  is  however  fair  enough:  "An  animated  and  patriotic 

54 


ORATION   BEFORE   THE   '"76"   SOCIETY  55 

oration  was  pronounced  at  St.  Michael's  Church  before  the 
Cincinnati  and  Revolution  societies,  by  Joshua  W.  Toomer,  Esq. 
Another  oration  was  pronounced  before  the  "76'  and  'Pal- 
metto' societies  by  R.  Y.  Hayne.  We  did  not  hear  the  latter, 
but  reports  speak  favorably  of  it.  They  will  both  probably  be 
published."  l 

Whatever  the  merits  of  Hayne's  oration,  it  unquestionably 
struck  a  popular  chord.  He  was  not  only  toasted  by  his  own 
proper  audience;  but  the  Charleston  Riflemen,  of  Toomer's  es- 
cort, toasted  him  as  well  as  Toomer.2  Still  there  was  no  harm  in 
that;  but  on  the  14th,  in  the  Gazette,  appear  strictures  on  Toomer's 
oration  by  one  "Veritas."  3  "Philo"  appears  for  the  defence  on 
the  1 6th,  and  on  the  19th  "Veritas"  replies.  On  the  21st  "  Philo" 
comes  back  at "  Veritas."  The  war  is  now  carried  into  Africa,  so  to 
speak;  for  in  the  Courier,  under  date  of  July  22,  appears  a  rather 
clever  criticism  of  Hayne's  speech  by  "Q,  in  a  corner";  but  the 
reply  on  the  26th  rather  breaks  up  "Q,"  who  evidently  has  not 
read  his  Bible  as  attentively  as  he  should,  and  stands  convicted  of 
criticising  it,  rather  than  Hayne.  But  still  the  paper  war  goes  on? 
until,  on  August  2,  a  piece  appears,  so  admirable  in  style  and  temper 
as  to  bear  reproduction  as  a  model  of  the  times  and  a  conclusion 
of  the  matter.  The  piece  is  headed,  "Mr.  Hayne's  Oration." 
The  writer  signs  himself  "  Justitia,"  and  delivers  himself  of  the 
following  temperate  reflections:  "The  best  pieces  are  subject  to 
animadversions;  the  worst  have  their  advocates.  Let  not  the 
youthful  candidate  then  be  discouraged  should  he  find  himself 
enthralled,  for  such  things  are.  Much  clamor  has  been  excited, 
and  the  pens  of  critics  sharpened  to  undervalue  an  oration  which, 
if  it  cannot  compare  with  Cicero,  etc.,  is  still  worthy  of  regard 
and  entitled  to  a  large  share  of  admiration.     It  bespeaks  the  orator 

1  Courier,  July  6,  7,  1814.  2  Ibid.,  July  8,  1814. 

8  City  Gazette,  July  14,  1814. 


56  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

conversant  with  books  and  of  that  higher  kind  which  cannot  fail 
to  illumine  his  understanding  and  give  him  a  name  even  greater 
than  orator  of  the  day.  If  he  has  decorated  his  pages  with  bor- 
rowed flowers,  'exotics'  as  they  are  learnedly  called,  it  was  not 
because  he  wanted  them,  or  because  his  own  soil  was  not  rich 
enough;  but  because  auxiliaries  may  sometimes  be  employed  to 
help  the  subject,  where,  as  in  the  present  instance,  it  involves 
deeds  of  mighty  pith.  Then  the  orator  may  invoke  with  propriety 
not  only  the  spirit  but  the  words  of  the  poet  and  the  philosopher, 
and  should  his  readers  still  be  inclined  to  cavil,  call  his  effusions, 
or  even  his  exuberances  if  they  like  the  term  better,  '  parti-colored,' 
their  imagination  may  be  under  greater  control;  but  the  flame 
would  not  be  very  apt  to  ascend.  Many  who  now  mark  his  in- 
verted commas  with  disdain,  would  not  have  detected  the  fraud 
had  he  omitted  them;  while  others,  perhaps  more  book  learned, 
might  have  brought  the  charge  of  pilfering  against  him  and  in 
triumph  led  his  plagiarisms  to  the  public,  for  the  many-headed 
monster  loves  contention.  I  am  aware  that  quotations  are  not 
always  expressed  and  may  sometimes  be  superfluous;  but  where 
the  soil  is  rich,  an  exotic  may  grow  and  even  be  improved — at  least 
the  orator  has  many  examples  to  justify  the  attempt,  and  for  his 
encouragement  I  shall  here  introduce  them.  Zimmerman,  the 
celebrated  philosopher,  abounds  in  quotations,  every  page  almost  is 
embellished  with  a  leaf  from  another  book,  and  yet  few,  I  believe, 
have  objected  to  his  writings  on  that  account.  Vicessimus  Knox, 
also  another  star  in  the  world  of  letters,  does  not  disdain  them. 
Even  the  great  and  profound  Lord  Bacon  uses  them,  and  inverted 
commas  frequently  grace  his  pages.  A  more  recent  example  is 
still  before  us  —  the  admired  author  of  the  Monitor.  If  such 
people  find  it  useful  to  employ  foreign  aid,  why  should  our  orator 
be  condemned?  The  truth  is,  the  orator's  politics  and  not  his 
quotations  have  given  offence  —  here  he  committed  himself,  and 


ORATION   BEFORE   THE   "'76"   SOCIETY  57 

not  all  Parnassus  can  rescue  him.  Of  his  politics,  however,  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  a  word  —  they  were  his  own,  and  he  had  a  right 
to  communicate  them.  He  was  also  responsible  and  called  upon 
to  deliver  his  sentiments,  as  well  as  speak  the  language  of  his  audi- 
tors. They  have  given  him  their  plaudits  and  pronounced  his 
voice  a  persuasive  one.  What  greater  commendation  could  be 
desired  ?  Perfection  is  not  the  lot  of  mortals ;  and  were  it  not  that 
quotations  are  obnoxious,  I  could  give  one  applicable  enough,  and 
I  believe  I  shall  risk  it,  notwithstanding  the  axe  of  the  literary 
guillotine  hangs  over  it. 

"  '  Whoever  expects  a  faultless  piece  to  see 

Thinks  what  ne'er  was,  nor  is,  nor  e'er  shall  be.' "  * 

In  his  "  History  of  Literature  in  South  Carolina,"  Mr.  Ludwig 
Lewisohn,  some  ninety  years  subsequent  to  the  delivery  of  this  ora- 
tion, says,  "  As  a  piece  of  oratorical  literature,  that  speech  is  ex- 
cessively crude,  ill  written,  ill  constructed ;  that  it  gives  little  promise 
of  the  grave  eloquence  which  a  score  of  years  later  matched  itself 
with  the  greatest  speeches  of  Webster."  2  He  quotes  Paul  Hayne 
to  the  effect,  however,  that  it  was  electrical  and  went  far  toward 
securing  the  triumphant  election  which  followed;  but  maintains, 
with  reason,  that  the  literary  historian  is  concerned  with  but  one 
thing,  viz.,  is  it  a  good  piece  of  oratorical  literature  ?  Judged  by 
this,  the  criticisms  were,  therefore,  just.  These  criticisms  were 
not  without  their  effect  on  Hayne.  Denied  the  advantages  of 
collegiate  training,  which  his  great  adversary  had  enjoyed  to  the 
full,  nothing  is  more  remarkable  with  regard  to  Hayne  than  his 
power  to  make  educational  use  of  every  contact  with  the  wise  and 
learned.  Whether  working  with  them  or  striving  against  them, 
in  his  receptive  mind,  great  thoughts  ever  found  a  lodgment,  and 

1  City  Gazette,  Aug.  2,  1814. 

3  "A  History  of  Literature  in  South  Carolina,"  Sunday  News,  July  19,  1903. 


58  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

it  was  within  a  decade,  not  a  score  of  years,  that  he  fairly  matched 
himself  with  Webster,  in  a  piece  of  oratorical  literature,  the  model 
of  its  kind.  He  must  have  recognized,  then,  the  defects  of  this 
first  attempt,  despite  the  fact  that  his  auditors  "had  given  him 
their  plaudits,  and  pronounced  his  voice  a  persuasive  one."  But 
as  crude  and  sophomoric  as  it  may  appear  to  the  rhetorician  of 
to-day,  this  speech  contains  more  than  the  germ  of  a  great  thought. 
In  this  utterance  of  a  young  man,  barely  twenty-two,  is  disclosed 
a  power  of  analysis  and  a  grasp  of  the  main  theme  of  his  subject, 
a  comprehension  of  our  governmental  institutions,  as  contrasted 
with  those  of  Great  Britain,  which,  when  we  consider  his  oppor- 
tunities and  the  time  at  which  he  made  his  declaration,  marks  him 
even  then  as  far  beyond  the  ordinary.  In  the  midst  of  his  pane- 
gyrics on  a  host  of  heroes,  some  of  whom,  as  great  as  they  may  have 
then  seemed,  have  in  time  become  somewhat  obscured,  occurs 
this  passage :  "  Britain  has  no  great  fundamental  principles  above 
the  control  of  her  rulers.  The  trial  by  jury,  Magna  Charta  and 
even  habeas  corpus,  like  the  most  insignificant  statute,  may  be 
repealed  by  an  act  of  Parliament.  Every  privilege  of  the  subject 
can  be  wrested  from  him;  his  happiness  may  be  immolated  on 
the  altars  of  ambition  with  all  the  forms  of  the  Constitution." 

If  we  judge  Hayne's  early  effort  by  the  literary  standard  prevail- 
ing eighty-nine  years  subsequent  to  it,  is  it  not  fair  to  indicate  how 
strikingly  in  accord  is  the  above  utterance  of  this  young  lawyer  of 
twenty-two  immersed  in  business,  with  the  disquisition  upon  the 
same  subject,  eighty-four  years  later,  by  the  greatest  of  English  his- 
torians, who  opens  his  second  chapter  on  "  Democracy  and  Liberty" 
with  these  words:  "The  power  given  in  England  to  a  simple 
majority  of  a  single  Parliament,  to  change  with  the  assent  of  the 
crown  any  portion  of  the  constitution,  is  not  a  common  thing  among 
free  nations.  .  .  .  Nothing,  indeed,  is  more  remarkable  in  our 
constitutional  history  than  the  small  stress  which  has  been  placed 


ORATION   BEFORE   THE    "'76"    SOCIETY  59 

in  England  upon  mere  legislative  machinery,  upon  constitutional 
laws,  definitely  tracing  the  respective  limits  and  powers  of  differ- 
ent institutions.  The  system  of  checks  and  counterchecks,  which 
it  has  been  the  object  of  written  constitutions  to  maintain,  has 
been  roughly  maintained  in  England  by  the  great  diversities  that 
long  existed  in  the  constituencies,  by  the  powerful  organization 
of  many  distinct  and  sometimes  conflicting  interests ;  by  the  great 
influence  and  essentially  representative  character  of  the  House  of 
Lords.  ...  It  is  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  working  of  the 
whole  machine  that  it  should  be  in  the  hands  of  honest  and  trust- 
worthy men,  of  men  determined  to  subordinate  on  great  occasions 
their  personal  and  party  interests  to  the  interests  of  the  State.  .  .  . 
If  this  spirit  is  no  longer  found  among  rulers  and  Parliaments 
and  constituencies,  there  is  no  constitution  which  may  be  more 
easily  dislocated  and  which  provides  less  means  of  checking  ex- 
cesses of  bad  government."  * 

The  thought  is  not  less  clearly  apprehended  by  Hayne,  if  put 
with  more  attention  to  detail  by  Lecky.  And  Lecky  had  the  dis- 
sertations of  both  Tocqueville  and  Bryce  to  excite  and  stimulate 
thought  upon  the  subject ;  Hayne,  in  all  probability  his  course  for 
examination  for  the  bar,  and  possibly  a  conversation  or  two  with 
Charles  Pinckney.  If  the  undeniable  similarity  of  thought  is 
grudgingly  yielded  with  the  qualifying  statement  that  it  was  and 
always  has  been  axiomatic,  it  can  be  urged  that  it  was  not  so  deemed 
by  the  Federal  critics  of  18 14;  for  this  very  passage  of  the  oration 
was  exploited  as  one  of  its  absurdities. 

But  Hayne  did  not  depend  upon  the  oration  alone,  however  it 
may  have  increased  his  popularity,  to  waft  him  to  power.  In 
conjunction  with  Mr.  Thomas  Lee,  who  had  aspirations  for  the  In- 
tendancy,  he  interested  himself  in  calling  a  meeting  of  citizens  for 
the  purpose  of  raising  subscriptions  to  build  a  74-gun  ship,  to  be 

1  Lecky,  "  Democracy  and  Liberty,"  Vol.  1,  p.  139. 


60  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

offered  to  the  valiant  commander  of  the  Essex.1  But  before  that 
could  take  shape,  conditions  seemed  so  threatening  that  the  meet- 
ing called  another  to  concert  measures  for  the  security  of  the  city 
from  invasion.2  This  awoke  the  city  authorities,  who  called  one 
earlier,  and,  with  a  somewhat  caustic  card  from  Mr.  Lee,  on  the 
dilatory  conduct  of  the  authorities,  the  meetings  coalesced.  Mr. 
Lee,  however,  comes  out  as  a  candidate  against  Thomas  Rhett 
Smith,  the  Federal  incumbent  of  the  Intendancy,  against  whom  is 
launched  the  political  shaft,  "Aristocrat."  But  Thomas  Rhett 
Smith  wins  the  election,  and  the  elated  Federalists  put  him  up  to 
succeed  Langdon  Cheves,  who  declines  reelection  to  Congress. 
Henry  Middleton  is  brought  forward  as  the  Republican  candidate, 
and  Hayne,  among  others,  named  for  the  Legislature.  Under 
date  of  October  8,  some  old  parliamentary  hand  3  suggests  to  the 
Republicans  the  expediency  of  concentrating  their  strength  on 
the  exact  number  of  candidates  needed  for  the  various  offices,  and 
offers  a  ticket.  Middleton  for  Congress,  James  R.  Pringle  for 
the  State  Senate  and  sixteen  representatives  for  the  House,  with  the 
name  of  Robert  Y.  Hayne  at  the  head.  The  ticket  is  handsomely 
elected,  Hayne  running  at  the  head  and  beating  the  leading  Federal- 
ist by  372  4  votes,  poor  Toomer  being  far  in  the  rear  of  his  own 
side.  It  is  not  unlikely,  and  quite  probable,  that  in  his  withdrawal 
from  active  political  life,  Charles  Pinckney  influenced  the  advance- 
ment of  his  young  son-in-law ;  but  in  the  main,  Hayne's  popularity 
was  owing  to  those  qualities  of  heart  and  mind  he  had  already 
given  evidence  of  possessing.  In  the  excitement  of  this  political 
struggle,  work  went  on  seven  days  in  the  week,  strengthening  the 
lines  around  the  city,  and,  as  an  indication  of  the  necessity  of  such 
work  on  the  fortifications,  a  suggestion  finds  its  way  into  the  press, 
that  as  many  of  the  men  have  rushed  to  the  lines,  without  so  much 

1  City  Gazette,  Aug.  29,  1814.  3  Ibid.,  Oct.  8,  1814. 

2  Ibid.,  Sept.  1,  1814.  *  Ibid.,  Oct.  14, 1814. 


ORATION   BEFORE   THE   "'76"    SOCIETY  61 

as  arranging  for  a  change  of  linen,  a  delicate  attention  on  the  part 
of  the  ladies  of  the  city  would  be  the  purchase  and  presentation 
of  shirts  to  such  of  their  defenders  as  need  them,  which  the  South 
Carolina  Homespun  Company  stands  prepared  to  furnish.1 

At  the  convening  of  the  Legislature,  the  young  captain  of  the 
Charleston  Cadet  Riflemen  hardly  reaches  Columbia  before  some- 
thing in  his  character,  reputation  or  appearance  so  attracts  Gov- 
ernor Alston,  that  the  latter  appoints  him  Quartermaster-General 
of  the  State.2  It  was  a  time  of  war;  troops  were  moving  from 
point  to  point;  the  coast  was  threatened  by  the  British  and  the 
frontier  by  Indians:  therefore  the  appointment  was  no  sinecure, 
for  upon  the  appropriate  handling  of  the  militia  depended  the 
security  of  the  States.  The  duties  of  Quartermaster- General  are 
thus  laid  down  in  a  general  order  of  the  Commander-in-Chief: 
"The  Quartermaster-General  is  charged  with  transportation  of 
every  description,  safekeeping  of  ordnance,  arms,  equipage  and 
munitions  of  war;  quartering  troops,  opening  roads  and  building 
and  repairing  bridges  necessary  for  the  movement  of  troops. 
Quarter,  forage,  barrack  and  wagon  masters  and  all  arsenal  keepers 
and  powder  receivers  are  ordered  to  report  to  him  and  receive 
his  orders."  3  With  this  appointment,  Hayne's  military  rank  was 
raised  to  that  of  colonel,  and  it  certainly  speaks  strongly  of  the  im- 
pression already  created  beyond  his  immediate  environment,  that 
this  young  man  should  have  been  selected  for  the  discharge  of 
these  laborious  and  responsible  duties. 

The  matter  which  seems  to  have  been  stirring  the  members  of 
the  Legislature  most  at  this  session  was  the  question  of  the  support 
of  the  Free  Schools.  Defeated  for  Congress  and  otherwise  lacking 
the  recognition  in  his  own  section,  which  in  the  opinion  of  the 
writers  of  the  day  he  seems  to  have  merited,  the  talented  Benjamin 

1  City  Gazette,  Oct.  26,  1814.  3  Carolina  Gazette,  Dec.  17,  1814. 

8  City  Gazette,  Jan.  16,  181 5. 


62  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Yancey  had  moved  to  Charleston,  where,  with  D.  E.  Huger  and 
Pepoon,  he  had  entered  into  a  copartnership  for  the  practice  of  law ; 
and  thus  one  able  defender  of  the  system  was  absent.  Crafts  and 
Lance  of  Charleston,  strong  advocates,  were  also  no  longer  mem- 
bers of  the  House ;  but  the  Free  School  System  nevertheless  found 
valiant  defenders. 

On  December  12,  Dr.  Philip  Moser,  of  the  Charleston  delegation, 
as  chairman  for  the  committee  to  which  had  been  referred  the 
petitions  against  the  system,  brought  in  the  following  report :  "  The 
committee  on  Schools,  to  whom  was  referred  sundry  petitions,  viz., 
from  the  inhabitants  of  Abbeville  and  part  of  Pendleton,  Newberry, 
Lewisburg  and  Marion  districts,  praying  a  suspension  or  relief 
of  the  Free  School  Act;  also  a  petition  from  Colleton  District  to 
the  same  purport.  Report :  That  they  have  considered  the  same 
in  conjunction  with  reports  of  commissioners  from  twenty-three 
districts,  also  referred,  from  which  it  appears  4651  children  have 
been  educated  the  last  year  from  the  Free  School  Fund,  in  addition 
to  the  facility  it  has  afforded  to  the  establishment  of  numerous 
other  schools  throughout  the  State.  Your  committee  are  therefore 
of  opinion  that  the  Free  School  Act  has  been  productive  of  un- 
bounded good  and  no  evil ;  they  therefore  unanimously  recommend 
a  continuance  of  this  excellent  system  and  a  rejection  of  the  prayer 
of  the  above-named  petitioners."  1 

This  unfavorable  report  did  not  stop  the  opponents,  however, 
and  a  bill  was  introduced  suspending  the  operation  of  the  Free 
School  Act,  which  was  passed  in  the  House,  65  ayes,  54  noes,  Hayne 
and  almost  the  entire  Charleston  delegation  voting  with  the  minor- 
ity, the  record  of  the  vote  having  been  preserved.  In  the  Senate 
the  bill  for  suspension,  however,  suffered  a  distinct  defeat,  and  the 
act  was  not  suspended.  In  this  vote,  as  has  been  noted,  Hayne 
was  in  accord  with  the  majority  from  his  locality ;  but  a  subsequent 

1  Carolina  Gazette,  Dec.  24,  1814. 


ORATION   BEFORE   THE   "'76"    SOCIETY  63 

publication  indicates  that  in  this,  the  first  session  he  attended,  he 
gave  an  unusual  indication  of  his  independence  and  decision  of 
character ;  for  when  one  of  the  Charleston  delegation  was  address- 
ing the  House,  Hayne  stopped  the  speech  and  took  him  off  the  floor 
by  a  motion  which  prevailed,  concerning  which  later  there  was 
comment. 

While  Robert  Y.  Hayne  was  thus  making  his  way  in  the  State, 
his  elder  brother,  Colonel  Arthur  P.  Hayne,  as  Inspector-General, 
was  serving  under  Andrew  Jackson  at  New  Orleans  and  winning 
the  esteem  and  affection  of  that  great  man.  The  War  of  181 2, 
crowned  by  the  great  victory  achieved  at  that  city  in  January,  18 15, 
ending,  inquiry  not  unnaturally  arose  as  to  the  birthplace  of  the 
hero.  The  question  was  referred  to  General  Warren  R.  Davie  of 
North  Carolina,  whose  operations  during  the  Revolutionary  War 
had  been  along  the  line  between  the  two  States  of  North  and  South 
Carolina,  and  he  on  the  authority  of  the  Crawfords  established  it 
as  unquestionably  in  South  Carolina.1 

Another  matter  of  some  interest  communicated  to  the  society  of 
"  '76"  at  their  annual  banquet,  July  4,  indicates  the  opinion  of  one 
of  the  great  old  men  of  the  country  with  regard  to  the  war.  Prior 
to  the  delivery  by  Hayne  of  that  speech,  around  which  such  a  war 
had  raged,  one  had  been  delivered  by  Mr.  J.  B.  White,  in  March 
of  the  same  year,  which  seems  to  have  been  considered  by  the 
society  as  something  quite  beyond  the  ordinary.  This  Mr.  White 
must  have  been  an  earnest,  public-spirited  citizen,  and  it  is 
pleasant  to  note  that  he  won  the  esteem  of  both  the  young  orators, 
over  whose  efforts  admirers  came  into  such  wordy  collision. 
Mr.  White  was  a  man  of  many  gifts.  He  had  painted  a  picture 
of  an  incident  in  the  war,  which  picture,  in  addition  to  its  artistic 
merit,  was  thought  to  point  something  of  a  moral.  At  least  the 
Republicans  did  not  hesitate  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Federalists 

1  City  Gazette,  March  27,  1815. 


64  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

to  their  view  of  it  when  put  on  exhibition.  Mr.  White  was  also 
a  dramatist,  and  had  written  a  play  which  had  been  performed 
at  the  Charleston  theatre,  in  which  he  had  satirized  the  practice 
of  duelling.  Mr.  White's  oration  had  been  sent  to  that  old  pa- 
triot, John  Adams,  and  from  the  great  man  the  committee  had 
received  an  acknowledgment.  Complimented  the  committee 
was,  and  the  letter  was  accordingly  not  only  read  at  the  meeting, 
but  published. 

"Quincy,  June  9,  1814. 
"R.  Y.  Hayne,  J.  Jervey,  B.  Elliott,  Esqs. 
"  Committee  of  the  '76  Association. 
"  Gentlemen  :  Accept  my  thanks  for  Mr.  White's  oration  on 
the  4th  of  March  and  be  pleased  to  present  them  to  your  constit- 
uents.    At  the  same  time  I  cannot  refrain  from  congratulating 
you  on  the  felicity  of  our  country  and  the  glory  acquired  by  the 
Western,  the  Southern  and  the  Middle  States  in   the  late  war. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,  etc., 

"John  Adams."  1 

This  was  calculated  to  weaken  the  Federalists  and  strengthen 
the  Republicans,  and  doubtless  the  society  recognized  the  fact. 

In  addition  to  the  demands  of  his  business,  his  legislative  duties, 
his  work  as  Quartermaster-General  and  the  care  and  responsibility 
imposed  upon  him  as  one  of  the  trustees  of  his  father-in-law's 
estate,  a  great  fortune  honeycombed  with  debt,  where  order  must 
be  evolved  from  chaos,  young  as  he  was  at  the  time,  Hayne  seems 
to  be  the  individual  always  in  demand,  whether  the  work  was  to 
deliver  a  eulogy  on  the  life  and  services  of  Dr.  Ramsay,  the  prepa- 
ration of  a  prospectus  of  the  latter' s  works,  or  the  raising  of  a 
charitable  fund;  and  yet  he  finds  time  for  social  meetings,  as  the 
above  incident  shows.     In  this  year,  when  the  State  and  nation 

1  City  Gazette,  July  6,  1815. 


ORATION   BEFORE  THE   "'76"   SOCIETY  65 

lose  the  service  of  such  a  man  as  Cheves,  it  is  interesting  to  note 
the  estimate  of  him  in  Calhoun's  own  district  and  the  political 
sentiments  of  the  latter  of  that  day.  In  the  course  of  the  usual 
celebration  of  the  4th  of  July,  at  Abbeville,  Dr.  Casey  toasts  the 
former  as  follows:  "Honorable  Langdon  Cheves  —  He  has  con- 
sulted the  honor  and  prosperity  of  his  country,  regardless  of  party 
feelings;  may  South  Carolina  always  have  such  men  to  direct 
her  counsels." 

The  toast  offered  by  Calhoun  was :  "  The  People  —  The  only 
source  of  legitimate  power.  May  France  acting  on  that  principle 
prove  invincible,  and  may  its  truth  and  energy  disperse  the  com- 
bination of  crowned  heads."  * 

1  lb  id.,  July  27,  1815. 


CHAPTER  V 

AFTER  THE  WAR  OF  l8l2.   CONDITION  OF  THE  STATE  AND  NATION. 
STATUS  OF  THE  FREE  COLORED  PEOPLE  IN  THE  SOUTH 

In  the  second  session  of  the  Legislature,  Hayne's  influence 
seemed  steadily  to  grow.  We  read,  "The  House  of  Representa- 
tives have  agreed  nearly  unanimously  to  two  resolutions  submitted 
by  Mr.  Hayne."  The  first  of  these  seems  to  have  been  to  give 
four  additional  weeks  to  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  in  Charleston 
and  two  weeks  for  Colleton  and  Beaufort ;  the  second  was  for  the 
appointment  of  an  additional  judge.  The  same  correspondent 
informs  us  that  the  Free  Schools  have  become  more  popular,  and 
some  gentlemen  from  the  interior  even  speak  of  making  further 
appropriations  for  them. 

In  Congress,  great  and  good  as  he  was,  the  absence  of  Cheves 
left  no  void ;  for  Lowndes  filled  the  vacancy  to  perfection.  Clay, 
having  accomplished  his  mission,  returned  to  Congress  and  was 
again  elected  Speaker,  and  in  the  course  of  the  session  occurred  the 
incident  which  strained  the  former  intimate  relations  between  him- 
self and  Calhoun.  Madison's  second  term  was  drawing  to  an  end, 
and  the  question  of  his  successor  was  up.  Lowndes  had  been  con- 
sistently opposed  to  a  caucus,  and  although  but  fifteen  members 
refrained  from  attending,  he  was  one  of  these.  Clay  attended 
but  for  the  purpose  of  protesting  against  the  expediency,  while 
Calhoun  attended  as  the  advocate  of  Monroe.  By  65  to  54  Craw- 
ford was  beaten,  and  in  a  great  measure  to  Calhoun  this  was  due. 
Already  between  Clay,  Crawford  and  Calhoun  the  contest  had 

66 


AFTER   THE  WAR   OF    1812  67 

opened,  involving  so  many  changes.  In  the  beginning  of  the 
session,  the  Kentucky  Abolition  Society  had  petitioned  Congress 
to  set  apart  a  suitable  territory  as  an  asylum  for  emancipated 
negroes  and  mulattoes,  as  a  great  number  had  been  emancipated, 
and  the  number  was  likely  to  increase;  but  "in  conse- 
quence of  the  fact  that  when  emancipated  they  were  not 
allowed  the  privileges  of  free  citizens  and  are  prohibited 
by  law  from  emigrating  to  other  States  and  Territories,"  they 
suffered  many  privations,  "for  the  want  of  room  and  opportuni- 
ties for  the  expansion  of  genius  and  encouragement  to  industry." 
The  prayer  of  the  petition  had  been  refused,  the  House  concurring 
in  the  report  brought  in  by  Robertson  of  Louisiana,  that  there 
was  "no  part  of  our  highly  favored  country  where  industry  and 
economy  will  not  insure  to  those  who  practise  them  an  easy  and 
independent  support." 

This  brings  us  naturally  to  a  consideration  of  the  condition  of 
the  negroes  in  the  Union. 

From  original  articles  of  agreement  in  the  possession  of  the 
South  Carolina  Historical  Society  there  is  evidence  of  the  care 
taken  by  humane  planters  to  protect  their  slaves  from  abuse  by 
overseers ; *  while  the  case  of  Fairchild  vs.  Bell 2  illustrates  the 
determination  of  the  courts  to  enforce  it  when  necessary  by  giving 
a  right  of  recovery  against  the  inhumane  owner  to  those  who  suc- 
cored the  abused  slave.  The  case,  also,  of  Pepoon  against  Clarke  3 
shows  the  strict  regard  for  the  rights  of  free  colored  persons  when 
the  courts  were  invoked  in  their  behalf. 

The  institution  of  slavery  led  to  abuses  —  of  that  there  can  be 
no  doubt;  but  that  there  was  a  strong,  active,  public  sentiment 
against  such  is  as  clear.  To  the  following  presentment  in  January, 
18 16,  is  appended  as  foreman  the  name  of  a  member  of  a  family 

1  Agreement  between  John  Ball  &  John  Penny,  Jan.  1,  1813. 

1  Brevard's  Reports,  Vol.  2,  p.  129.         3  Constitutional  Reports,  Vol.  1,  p.  137. 


68  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

as  identified  with  all  that  was  as  refined  and  cultivated  as  could  be 
found  in  Charleston:  "The  Grand  Jury  present  as  a  most  serious 
evil  the  many  instances  of  negro  homicide,  which  have  been  com- 
mitted within  the  city  for  many  years.  The  parties  exercising  un- 
limited control,  as  masters  and  mistresses,  in  the  indulgence  of 
their  malignant  and  cruel  passions,  in  the  barbarous  treatment  of 
slaves,  using  them  worse  than  beasts  of  burden  and  thereby 
bringing  on  the  community,  the  State  and  the  city  the  contumely 
and  opprobrium  of  the  civilized  world."1  And  again,  in  May: 
"We  present  as  a  grievance,  the  show  of  lawful  proceedings,  which 
has  been  fictitiously  given  by  some  persons  to  the  horrible  practice 
of  inducing  free  negroes  in  jail  or  in  debt  to  bind  themselves  for 
a  trifling  sum  for  several  years,  and  by  a  transfer  of  the  indenture 
and  a  chain  of  inhuman  proceedings  cause  them  to  be  sold  into  the 
interior  or  out  of  the  State,  by  which  means  they  may  be  deprived 
of  their  freedom." 

To  the  thoughtful,  the  fearlessness  of  these  presentments  will 
be  the  strongest  impression  produced  by  their  publication.  Evil 
exists  under  all  civilizations;  it  is  the  struggle  against  it  which 
bears  witness  to  the  moral  worth  of  a  community.  But  to  some 
Pharisees  they  will  only  represent  the  frightful  condition  under 
which  the  negroes,  free  or  slave,  existed  in  the  city ;  for  the  truth  of 
history,  therefore,  there  must  be  added  the  following  interesting 
letter,  illustrative  as  it  is  of  the  condition  of  the  free  colored  persons 
of  Charleston  at  that  very  period.  From  the  letter  book  of  the 
Brown  Fellowship  Society,  to  which  allusion  has  before  been  made, 
the  following  is  quoted :  — 

"Charleston,  April  17,  1817. 
"  Mr.  George  Logan  :  — 

"Sir:    With    Great   reluctance   I  now  write  you  as  Being 

directed  by  the  President  and  Members  of  the  Brown  Society  to 

1  City  Gazette,  Jan.  22  and  April  24,  1816. 


AFTER   THE  WAR   OF   1812  69 

inform  you  finally  that  agreeable  to  the  report  (made  them  on  your 
conduct)  by  William  Clark  on  the  meeting  of  the  10th  day  of 
February  last,  relative  to  the  matters  between  Robinson,  a  free 
black  man  and  yourself,  a  committee  on  the  case  were  appointed 
to  search  and  examine  into  the  matters  Relative  thereto.  Ac- 
cordingly they  have  done  so  and  found  Evidence  on  sure  ground 
Committed  to  paper  that  you  held  a  conspiracy  and  caused  said 
Robinson,  a  free  black  man  to  be  sold  as  a  slave.  This  information 
comes  from  a  Gentleman  one  of  our  acting  Wardens  in  Council. 
Who  are  ready  at  any  time  to  give  testimony  against  your  conduct 
&  deportment  in  Life  in  consequence  of  so  base  and  notorious  an 
act  as  committed.  The  members  composing  said  body  in  General 
have  positively  agreed  at  their  last  meeting  the  3rd  inst.  (at  which 
you  were  present  &>  called  on  to  vindicate  yourself  and  defend 
your  course  but  could  not) .  Therefore  you  are  discarded  from  the 
Brown  fellowship  Society  and  are  not  entitled  to  any  rights, 
privileges  or  benefits  whatever  belonging  to  said  institution. 
Neither  shall  your  heirs  or  posterity  have  any  benefit  or  claim 
whatever  from  the  said  Institution  from  the  3rd  day  of  April, 
18 1 7,  to  the  end  of  time.  By  order  and  in  behalf  of  the  President 
and  the  Members  of  the  Brown  Fellowship  Society,  I  am, 
sir,  "Your  obdt.  servant, 

"James  Mitchell,  Secretary.1 
"  To  Mr.  George  Logan, 
State  Street." 

The  contrast  between  the  condition  of  the  free  colored  people 
as  evinced  by  this  letter,  emanating  from  a  community  where 
slavery  existed,  and  that  which  is  revealed  as  their  status  in  one  of 
the  free  States,  if  dependence  is  to  be  placed  on  the  report  of  the 

1  Book  of  Century  Fellowship  Society,  April  17,  181 7,  in  possession  of  J.  H. 
Holloway. 


70  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Massachusetts  legislative  committee,  made  public  three  years 
later,  is  the  severest  indictment  of  the  methods  of  Northern  aboli- 
tionists which  could  be  drawn. 

Does  it  not  speak  volumes  for  the  breadth  and  liberality  of 
the  Charleston  public  of  that  period  that  he,  who  with  Crafts, 
Lance  and  Huger  of  the  city  so  eloquently  defended  the  Free 
School  System  and  who,  but  a  recent  resident  of  it  and  counsel 
in  that  very  case  of  Pepoon  vs.  Clarke,  for  the  ward  of  the  unhappy 
being  whom  Clarke  sought  to  consign  to  slavery,  the  eloquent 
Yancey,  without  any  caucus  indorsement,  should  have  led  the 
legislative  ticket  for  the  year?  And  that,  too,  when  the  ticket 
contained  the  names  of  men  as  popular  as  Hayne  and  Huger.  Yet 
that  breadth  and  liberality  had  its  well-defined  limits;  for  when 
the  defeated  candidate  for  the  nomination  of  the  Republican 
presidential  caucus  brought  forward  his  plan  for  the  solution  in 
part  of  the  race  problem,  viz.,  the  intermarriage  of  whites  and 
Indians,  it  only  provoked  ridicule.1 

The  success  of  Calhoun  in  pushing  through  Congress,  despite  all 
obstructive  tactics,  his  bank  bill,  was  the  means  of  furnishing  evi- 
dence of  the  growing  confidence  in  him ;  but  also  the  financial  con- 
dition of  the  metropolis  of  the  State  he  represented,  for  Charleston 
subscribed  $2,598,000 2  — a  greater  amount  than  either  New  York 
or  Boston,  and  surpassed  only  by  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore. 
Indeed,  the  commerce  of  Charleston,  now  that  embargoes  were 
things  of  the  past,  was  moving  forward  with  a  rush.  Of  a  total  of 
exports  for  this  year,  valued  at  $81,920,452  for  the  United  States, 
those  of  South  Carolina  amounted  to  $io,849,409,3  being  surpassed 
by  only  one  State,  viz.,  New  York,  with  $19,690,051.  But  in  popu- 
lation the  city  had  not  grown.  In  a  total  population  of  23,944, 
there  were  11,515  slaves  and  1200  free  persons  of  color.      Of  a 

1  City  Gazette,  April  24,  1816.  3  Ibid.,  Sept.  4,  1816. 

3  Courier  and  City  Gazette,  Feb.  20,  1817. 


AFTER   THE    WAR   OF    1812  71 

total  population  of  109,619,  New  York  City  had  617  slaves  and 
7,744 *  free  persons  of  color  among  her  inhabitants.  What  was  the 
condition  of  these  free  persons  of  color  in  New  York  ?  We  shall 
soon  see  what  it  was  in  Massachusetts,  and  we  have  the  assertion  of 
the  Abolition  Society  of  Kentucky  as  to  what  it  was  generally,  in 
absolute  contradiction  to  the  claim  made  six  years  prior  by  Fiske 
of  New  York,  that  "  in  almost  all  the  States,  free  persons,  whether 
black,  white  or  colored,  if  they  had  the  proper  qualifications  other- 
wise, were  allowed  to  vote  " ;  for  the  distinct  claim  is  made  that 
"they  were  not  allowed  the  privileges  of  free  citizens  and  are 
prohibited  from  emigrating  to  other  States  and  Territories."  2 

With  a  white  population  a  little  more  than  one-ninth  of  that 
of  New  York,  the  value  of  the  exports  of  Charleston  were  nearly 
one-half.  With  a  canal  system  giving  water  communication  as  high 
up  in  the  interior  as  Camden,  and  with  steamboat  connections,  in 
addition  to  the  volume  of  shipping,  the  city  had  metropolitan 
ambitions,  as  the  attempt  to  establish  that  museum,  which  even 
to-day  is  so  creditable  to  the  place,  was  indicative  of.  It  was  along 
lines  such  as  these  that  the  influence  of  Stephen  Elliott  made  itself 
chiefly  felt.  Born  in  Beaufort,  South  Carolina,  in  1771,3  a  graduate 
of  Yale  College,  he  was  the  first  President,  if  not  the  founder,  of  the 
Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  of  Charleston  from  which  the 
museum  proceeded.  The  author  of  "  The  Botany  of  South  Caro- 
lina and  Georgia,"  and  collector  of  the  "Elliott  Herbarium,"  the 
diversity  of  his  talents  was  not  less  remarkable  than  their  power 
and  excellence.  He  had  been  denied  political  eminence,  and,  in- 
asmuch as  that  denial  was  in  favor  of  William  Lowndes,  it  is  hard 
to  question  it ;  but  with  such  a  man,  as  well  as  Langdon  Cheves  to 
utilize,  that  the  Legislature  should  have  passed  them  both  by  and 
taken   Judge    Smith  from  the  bench  to  fill  the  vacancy  in  the 

1  Ibid.,  Aug.  13,  181 6.  2  Abridgment  of  Debates,  Vol.  5,  p.  548. 

3  Holmes,  "Southern  Fifth  Reader,"  p.  255. 


72  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

United  States  Senate,  is  indicative  of  the  difficulty  in  choosing  from 
much  good  material. 

The  successful  close  of  the  war  had  discredited  the  Federal 
party  in  Charleston  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  it  slow  to  bring 
out  candidates,  and  the  Republicans  therefore  fought  among  them- 
selves. Against  Henry  Middleton  for  Congress,  the  anti-duellist, 
Free  School  champion,  Dr.  Philip  Moser,  was  put  and  pressed 
vigorously  by  the  City  Gazette;  but,  on  his  defeat  for  the  nomi- 
nation, the  party  supported  Middleton;  and  Crafts,  the  Federal 
advocate  of  free  schools,  failed  of  election.  On  the  legislative 
ticket,  Hayne  ran  third ;  while  H.  L.  Pinckney  was  also  elected,  as 
was  D.  Ravenel,  running  as  against  the  caucus  nomination.  But 
while  Hayne  ran  only  third  on  the  ticket  of  sixteen  representatives, 
and  both  Yancey  and  D.  E.  Huger,  older  men  and  of  longer  ex- 
perience in  affairs,  were  made  chairmen  of  more  important  commit- 
tees by  the  Speaker,  yet  an  incident  at  the  opening  of  the  session 
disclosed  the  remarkable  influence  he  wielded.  When  the  ticket 
for  the  Legislature  had  first  been  suggested,  the  name  of  Bartholo- 
mew Carroll  had  headed  it.1  The  ticket  had,  however,  been  de- 
capitated, without  explanation,2  and  just  before  the  assembling  of 
the  Legislature  a  publication  appeared  which  seemed  to  stamp 
Hayne  as  the  leader.  "  Robert  Y.  Hayne :  Sir  —  Having  had  the 
honor  of  being  appointed  commissioner  under  an  order  of  the  Senate 
to  examine  and  report  on  the  claim  of  Peter  Buyck,  and  in  my  place 
as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  being  engaged  in 
disclosing  to  the  House  the  information  I  had  collected  on  that  sub- 
ject, you  moved  a  postponement,  which  was  carried,  by  which  I 
was  deprived  of  an  opportunity  of  discharging  a  duty  which  I 
owed  myself  and  my  country  in  giving  a  correct  statement  of 
the  case  and  the  much  injured  public  creditors;  and  not  now 
having  the  honor  of  a  seat  in  the  House,  I  make  use  of  this 

1  City  Gazette,  Sept.  6,  1816.  *  Ibid.,  Sept.  9,  1816. 


AFTER   THE  WAR   OF    1812  73 

medium  to  inform  you  (of  whose  candor  and  justice  I  entertain 
the  highest  opinion)  and  the  members  of  both  branches  of  the 
legislature  (who  I  am  confident  have  very  little  information 
on  the  subject)  with  a  correct  state  of  the  matter  of  this  long- 
standing claim;  at  the  same  time,  I  assure  you  I  have  no  sort  of 
interest  but  what  arises  from  my  sense  of  justice  in  Buyck  or  any 
of  his  family  or  connections."  l  Then  follows  a  lengthy  statement 
of  the  case  signed  by  Bartholomew  Carroll.  Whether  it  accom- 
plished anything,  and  what  connection  if  any  it  had  with  Carroll's 
heading  and  leaving  the  ticket,  nothing  else  shows,  but  it  is  a  tribute 
to  Hayne's  influence  with  his  colleagues. 

On  the  floor  of  the  House,  opposed  by  older  men,  —  Yancey, 
Lance,  Wilson  and  Kennedy,  —  Hayne,  supported  by  Huger, 
carried  through  by  a  vote  of  88  to  28  the  change  in  the  Constitution 
with  regard  to  the  Appellate  Court 2  as  well  as  other  legislation  with 
respect  to  jurisprudence.  There  was  also  an  act  passed  prohibiting 
the  introduction  of  slaves  from  any  State  or  Territory,  without 
special  provision  of  the  Legislature,3 — an  act  of  profound  impor- 
tance, if  we  consider  it  as  representing  public  sentiment  in  South 
Carolina  at  the  close  of  1816.  In  the  first  of  the  next  year,  the 
comment  on  the  announcement,  that  "between  November  21  and 
29,  1816,  six  vessels  with  1538  slaves  had  reached  Havana," 
by  the  City  Gazette,  is  "  inhuman  traffic,"  4  which  would  show 
agreement  with  a  sentiment  restricting  interstate  movement. 
The  elevation  of  Judge  Smith,  however,  could  not  be  so  under- 
stood. 

For  the  vacancy  caused  by  his  removal  from  the  bench,  Cheves 
was  unanimously  selected  —  an  arrangement  which  leads  an 
eminent  Federalist  to  remark,  with  great  acuteness:  "The  State 
will  gain  much  by  Mr.  Cheves's  services;  but  I  think  they  have 

1  Ibid.,  Nov.  29,  1816.  s  Ibid.,  Dec.  17,  1816. 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  10,  1816.  *  Ibid.,  Jan.  11,  1817. 


74  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

chosen  too  humble  and  obscure  a  pedestal  on  which  to  place  this 
ornament  of  Carolina."  l 

One  bad  sign  of  the  times  was  the  failure  of  the  South  Carolina 
Homespun  Company.  That  did  much  to  convince  the  leaders  of 
opinion  in  the  State  that  there  was  no  future  for  manufacturing  in 
the  South.  And  to  that  mistaken  opinion,  Hayne  seems  to  have 
later  subscribed. 

For  him  the  period  was  depressing.  The  death  of  a  younger 
brother  and  the  sale  of  his  father's  plantation,  his  father-in-law's 
pecuniary  embarrassment  and  his  wife's  failing  health,  all  contrib- 
uted to  the  weight  of  his  cares  at  twenty-five. 

In  Congress,  meanwhile,  Calhoun  had  just  introduced  his  reso- 
lution supplementary  to  the  bank  act,  authorizing  a  committee 
to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  setting  apart  the  bonus  and  net 
annual  proceeds  of  the  bank  for  internal  improvements  2  prepara- 
tory to  his  entrance  into  the  cabinet  of  Monroe  as  Secretary  of 
War. 

The  two  years  which  followed  saw  the  completion  of  Hayne' s 
career  as  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature.  In  the  fall  of  the 
year  1817,  Benjamin  Yancey  died  at  his  old  home,  Edgefield.3 
During  his  short  sojourn  in  Charleston,  the  city  had  honored  him 
with  distinct  marks  of  her  esteem,  and  the  Speaker  from  that  city 
had  made  him  chairman  of  what  had  always  been  regarded  in 
South  Carolina  as  the  most  important  committee,  of  which  Hayne 
was  also  a  member ;  but  Speaker  Bennett  did  not  advance  Hayne  to 
the  chairmanship  on  Yancey's  death.  Matthew  I.  Keith,  whom 
the  voters  had  placed  second  on  the  ticket  and  just  between 
Yancey  and  Hayne,  was  made  chairman. 

The  close  of  this  second  session  seems  marked  by  little  of  im- 
portance.    The  assembly  was  so  flooded  with  petitions  for  the 

1  Courier,  Dec.  23,  1816.  2  City  Gazette,  Dec.  24,  1816. 

3  Ibid.,  Oct.  9,  181 7. 


AFTER  THE  WAR   OF    1812  75 

introduction  of  negroes  as  to  disturb  the  correspondent  of  the  City 
Gazette,  who  speaks  of  colonizing  them ; !  for  in  Charleston 
their  increasing  numbers  were  making  them  a  great  nuisance. 
A  batch  of  469  had  just  been  apprehended  and  brought  before  the 
court  on  the  charge  of  disorderly  conduct,  they  having  bought  a  lot, 
erected  a  building  and  engaged  therein  in  a  species  of  worship 
which  the  neighborhood  found  a  nuisance.  They  were  discharged ; 
but  the  bringing  in  of  more  would  create  more  trouble.  In  the 
Legislature,  Hayne  had  been  spoken  of  in  connection  with  a  judge- 
ship ;  "  but  seeking  the  advice  of  Huger,  after  a  conference  with  him 
had  announced  that  he  was  not  a  candidate"  2  and  would  not 
accept  the  office.  It  may  be  well  doubted  from  this  whether 
Hayne  entirely  approved  of  the  candidacy  of  his  distinguished 
father-in-law  for  Congress  in  the  following  year;  for  Mr.  Huger 
was  a  candidate,  who  whether  Federalist  or  not  was  quite  ac- 
ceptable to  the  mass  of  voters  in  the  Charleston  District.  He  was 
a  man  of  the  age  of  Calhoun  and  Lowndes,  in  the  full  maturity 
of  his  physical  power,  and  his  stand  for  the  Free  School  System 
had  endeared  him  to  the  masses ;  but  unfortunately  for  his  pros- 
pects, Mr.  William  Crafts,  also  a  Federalist,  encouraged  by  his 
strong  run  of  the  previous  year,  was  also  an  aspirant.  Two 
Federalists  were  more  than  the  Republicans  of  Charleston  could 
tolerate,  and  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  veteran 
statesman  of  that  party,  Charles  Pinckney,  then  in  his  sixty-first 
year,  to  stand  as  a  candidate.3 

There  were  many  reasons  why  Charles  Pinckney  should  have 
refused.  Measured  by  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  when  life  was 
shorter  than  now  and  the  living  faster,  he  was  an  old  man.  He 
had  accomplished  much  and  been  highly  honored.  His  son-in- 
law  and  only  son,  both  dear  to  him  and  well  equipped,  were 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  4,  1817.  2  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  2,  p.  13. 

3  City  Gazette,  July  1,  1818. 


76  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

entering  public  life.  A  settlement  had  been  arrived  at  with  his 
creditors ;  but  so  soon  after  his  great  failure  there  was  certain  to  be 
hard  feeling  aroused  by  his  coming  forth  to  the  post  of  leader  and 
adviser.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  upon  his  head  there 
burst  a  storm.  Every  charge  that  could  be  trumped  up  against  him 
was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  candidate,  and  his  supporters  were 
kept  busy  answering  them.  He  was  accused  of  cowardice  during 
the  Revolutionary  War  at  the  siege  of  Savannah,  of  failing  to  ac- 
count for  public  funds  intrusted  to  him  while  in  office  and  for  lack 
of  public  spirit  in  1812.  In  reply,  his  friends  cited  his  demand  for  a 
court  martial  with  regard  to  the  Savannah  episode,  admitting  that 
as  a  captain  he  had,  through  a  misunderstood  order,  retired ;  but 
claiming  that  the  court  martial  had  been  refused  by  his  superior 
officer,  and  that  his  subsequent  withdrawal  from  the  army  had 
only  been  in  consequence  of  the  high  honor  bestowed  upon  him 
through  his  election  as  a  representative  to  the  Continental  Congress. 
They  pointed  to  the  fact  that  he  had  refused  British  protection 
during  the  struggle,  and  at  the  close  of  the  contest,  from  a  prison 
ship,  had  been  unanimously  chosen  the  representative  of  his  fellow- 
prisoners  to  voice  their  views.  The  misappropriation  they  denied, 
demanding  the  proofs,  and  pointed  to  the  fact  that  he  had  four 
times  been  elected  Governor  of  the  State.  They  asserted  he  had 
communicated  with  Governor  Alston  in  181 2,  offering  his  services; 
and  they  declared  that,  despite  his  sixty-one  years,  he  was  in  full 
possession  of  all  his  splendid  mental  faculties,1  which  last  as- 
sertion he  certainly  subsequently  demonstrated  beyond  perad- 
venture.  The  charge  against  Charles  Pinckney  of  misappropri- 
ating public  funds  evidently  arose  through  the  fact  that  accusations 
having  been  brought  against  the  American  representative  at 
Algiers,  the  point  was  made  that  the  scope  of  the  investigation 
should  embrace  an  examination  of  other  accounts  of  officials  with 

1  City  Gazette,  July  15,  20,  23,  24,  1818. 


AFTER  THE   WAR   OF   1812  77 

the  government,  including  those  of  Pinckney  some  ten  years  or 
more  previous,  when  he  was  Minister  to  Spain.  The  matter  seems 
to  have  been  dropped  in  Congress  and  looked  more  like  a  political 
manoeuvre  than  a  serious  investigation.  He  was  elected,  and  in 
fact  the  only  Federal  who  succeeded  in  getting  an  office  in  the 
election  that  year  from  Charleston  was  Keating  L.  Simons,  who 
obtained  a  seat  in  the  Legislature,  Joel  R.  Poinsett  leading  the 
ticket,  with  Hayne  second.  But  upon  the  assembling  of  the  new 
Legislature,  Hayne  was  unanimously  elected  Speaker.1 

The  Legislature  which  assembled  in  the  fall  of  18 18  was  de- 
scribed at  the  time,  by  the  acute  and  observant  correspondent 
of  the  Gazette,  as  "containing  the  greatest  array  of  talent  probably 
ever  assembled  in  such  a  body  in  South  Carolina,"  and,  judged 
by  the  career  of  not  a  few  of  its  members,  it  is  not  unnatural  that 
they  should  have  given  early  indication  of  the  force  they  later 
displayed  themselves  the  possessors  of. 

Hayne's  appointments  with  regard  to  committees  are  indica- 
tive of  that  fairness,  breadth  and  patriotism  which  endeared 
him  through  life  to  many  who  found  themselves  differing  with 
him.  As  chairman  of  the  committee  of  Elections,  he  selected  Joel 
R.  Poinsett  of  Charleston,  a  Republican ;  of  the  Ways  and  Means 
and  the  Judiciary,  D.  E.  Huger  and  K.  L.  Simons,  both 
Federalists.2 

Hardly  had  the  House  met  before  it  became  apparent  that 
upon  not  a  few  questions  there  would  be  wide  division  of  opinion 
and  spirited  debate.  There  was  the  bill  to  repeal  the  act  pro- 
hibiting the  importation  of  slaves  from  other  States  and  Territories, 
without  the  special  permission  of  the  Legislature,  which  a  great 
number  of  the  members  desired  to  force  through,  and  a  small  num- 
ber, far  wiser,  were  determined  to  resist.  There  was  the  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  proposed  by  the 
1  Ibid.,  Nov.  28,  1818.  2  Ibid. 


78  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

State  of  North  Carolina  and  favored  by  the  Governor  of  South 
Carolina,  altering  the  method  of  choosing  electors  for  President 
and  Vice-President,  which  was  to  be  pressed  upon  the  House  by  a 
formidable  array  of  talent.  And  there  was  the  bill  to  make  "all 
words,  in  themselves  actionable,  which  shall  be  falsely  spoken, 
injurious  to  the  moral  character  of  the  persons  of  whom  they  are 
spoken,"  the  phraseology  of  which  as  reported  was  sufficiently 
obscure  to  give  rise  to  considerable  debate. 

With  regard  to  the  bill  providing  for  the  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  correspondent  of  the  City 
Gazette  says:  " There  probably  never  was  a  question  in  the 
Legislature  which  elicited  more  talent  than  was  displayed  in  the 
discussion  of  the  merits  of  the  amendment,  which  occupied  two 
days.  Messrs.  McDuffie,  K.  L.  Simons,  D.  E.  Huger  and  J.  D. 
Witherspoon  were  for  the  amendment;  Messrs.  Hayne  (Speaker), 
Hunt  and  Warren,  against.  At  first  view  it  seems  to  promise  a  more 
free  expression  of  the  public  view;  but  the  fact  is,  when  niceties 
of  calculation  are  gone  into,  it  is  directly  the  reverse."  *  The 
correspondent  tells  us  the  amendment  was  finally  disagreed  to: 
ayes,  29,  noes,  82.  This  was  followed  by  the  most  important 
discussion  which  had  occupied  the  Legislature  since  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  viz.,  that  concerning  the 
repeal  of  the  act  prohibiting  the  importation  of  negroes  from  other 
States  and  Territories  without  special  permission  from  the  Legis- 
lature. Governor  Pickens  recommended  the  repeal,  on  the  ex- 
traordinary ground  that  the  law  was  violated  with  impunity.2 

Prior  to  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  number  of  negroes  in  the  prov- 
ince of  South  Carolina  had  exceeded  the  whites ;  but  the  war  had 
changed  that,  and  up  to  1800  the  white  population  had  exceeded  the 
colored  by  about  25  per  cent;  but  with  the  invention  of  the  cotton-gin, 
and  the  spread  of  the  cotton-planting  industry,  a  great  change  was 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  8,  1818.  2  Courier,  Nov.  30,  1818. 


AFTER   THE  WAR   OF   1812  79 

being  wrought,  and  by  18 10  the  two  races  were  again  about  equal  in 
number,  and  with  the  close  of  the  war  in  18 15  the  attention  of  the 
thoughtful  had  been  directed  to  the  evil,  and  hence  the  act  of  1816. 
This  act,  short-sighted  men  wished  now  to  repeal.  The  negro 
population  was  increasing  at  a  rate  three  times  as  great  as  that 
of  the  white.  In  the  city  of  Charleston  they  were  getting  to  be  a 
nuisance  and  affecting  the  morals  of  the  whites.  Allusion  has  been 
made  to  the  great  number  arrested  for  rowdy  worship  in  the  pre- 
vious year  and  dismissed ;  but  in  June  of  this  year  their  disorderly 
conduct  seems  to  have  brought  punishment,  for  we  read  under  that 
date  in  the  Courier  that  "one  hundred  and  forty-three  free  negroes 
and  slaves  belonging  to  the  African  church  were  taken  up  on  Satur- 
day afternoon  by  the  City  Guard  and  lodged  in  the  Guard  House. 
The  City  Council  yesterday  morning  sentenced  five  of  them, 
consisting  of  a  bishop  and  four  ministers,  to  one  month's  imprison- 
ment, or  to  give  security  to  leave  the  State.  Eight  other  ministers 
were  also  sentenced  separately  to  receive  ten  lashes,  or  pay  a  fine 
each  of  five  dollars."  * 

It  will  not  do  to  assume  this  was  not  just ;  for  from  the  records 
of  a  colored  society  it  has  been  already  shown  that  by  "a  Gentle- 
man, one  of  our  acting  Wardens  in  Council,"  was  that  society 
warned  of  the  traitorous  behavior  of  one  of  its  own  members  in 
conspiring  to  sell  a  free  black  into  slavery.  The  truth  was,  that 
their  numbers  were  increasing  too  swiftly  for  them  to  be  influenced 
properly. 

The  eastern  sea  wall  of  the  Battery  had  just  been  completed 
as  a  pleasure  resort,  but  the  slaves  and  free  negroes  congregated 
there  in  such  numbers  that  they  were  warned  by  the  city  au- 
thorities to  keep  off.2  These  authorities  did  have  a  prompt  and 
summary  way  of  remedying  evils,  not  at  all  confined  to  the  blacks; 
for  in  July  of  the  same  year  625  loaves  of  light  bread  were  seized  by 

1  Ibid.,  June  9,  1818.  3  Ibid.,  Sept.  12,  1818. 


80  ROBERT  Y.    HAYNE 

the  City  Marshal  and  distributed  to  the  poor,  a  most  efficacious 
way  of  enforcing  proper  weight.1 

It  would  have  seemed  from  the  foregoing  that  the  representa- 
tives of  Charleston,  at  least,  would  have  realized  the  mistake  of 
the  repeal  of  the  act  prohibiting  importation  of  negroes  from 
other  States,  even  if  the  extravagant  prices  for  cotton  had  turned 
the  heads  of  the  country  members ;  but  William  Lance  of  Charles- 
ton was  one  of  the  speakers  in  favor  of  the  repeal.  With  him 
were  John  D.  Witherspoon  of  Marion  and  George  McDuffie  of 
Abbeville.  The  principal  opponents  to  the  bill  seem  to  have 
been  from  Charleston,  —  Hayne,  Huger  and  K.  L.  Simons.2  But 
if  Lance  did  not  represent  Charleston  as  effectively  as  the  three 
who  opposed  the  bill,  yet  he  cannot  be  dismissed  as  representing 
nothing.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  parts  and  learning,  a  lawyer  of 
merit,  an  orator  of  repute  and  the  author  of  a  life  of  Washington, 
which,  for  some  inscrutable  purpose,  he  had  written  in  the  Latin 
tongue.  But  he  was  no  fanciful  visionary,  for  he  had  shared 
with  Yancey,  Crafts  and  Huger  the  credit  of  the  first  defence  of  the 
Free  School  System.  The  bill  was  passed  by  a  large  majority,  ac- 
cording to  the  Courier,  after  "one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  ani- 
mated debates  that  has  taken  place  on  the  floor  for  many  years."  3 
In  the  Senate  it  became  law  only  by  a  vote  of  22  to  19.4  Even  before 
its  passage  some  of  the  forthcoming  evil  effects  were  plainly  dis- 
cernible in  this  wild  rush  to  embark  capital  in  cotton  and  negroes. 
The  diversified  industries  which  had  given  a  solid  basis  to  industrial 
conditions  in  the  State  were  from  this  time  neglected,  the  raising  of 
stock  to  a  great  extent  was  abandoned  and  the  price  of  beef  rose  to 
an  alarming  figure.  The  strength  of  the  soil  was  to  be  speedily 
exhausted;  while  the  manufacturing  interests  of  the  North  were 
to  fasten  on  the  product  like  leeches,  determined  to  have  their  share, 

1  Courier,  July  20,  1818.  3  Courier,  Dec.  12,  1818. 

3  City  Gazette,  Dec.  12,  1818.  *  Ibid.,  Dec.  8,  1818. 


AFTER   THE   WAR   OF    1812  81 

and  more  if  they  could  extract  it.  Before  a  score  of  years  had 
passed,  practically  all  the  temporary  benefits  had  vanished,  the 
relations  between  the  State  and  Federal  governments  were  strained 
to  the  breaking  point,  the  leadership  of  the  Union  was  exchanged 
for  a  triumph,  which  inevitably  led  to  secession  and  defeat  and  an 
overwhelming  population  of  shiftless  negroes.  What  interest  would 
there  not  attach  to  the  argument  of  these  three  opponents  of  the 
bill  at  that  time,  before  they  could  have  been  affected  by  the  influence 
of  a  crystallized  public  opinion?  Of  Hayne's,  we  can  only  judge 
from  subsequent  utterances,  when  conditions  were  different;  but 
even  then  they  give  some  idea  of  his  wise  and  penetrating  judgment 
on  this  subject.  Now,  however,  elected  unanimously  to  the  office  of 
Attorney-General  of  the  State,  his  career  in  the  Legislature  ended 
with  his  carrying  through  the  bill,  defining  slander,  by  a  majority 
of  23.1 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  ax,  1818. 


CHAPTER  VI 

HAYNE  AS  ATTORNEY-GENERAL.  LETTERS  TO  CHEVES.  REPUB- 
LICAN PARTY  IN  NATION  BROKEN  INTO  FACTIONS.  CONDI- 
TIONS  IN   SOUTH   CAROLINA 

Hayne's  first  duty  as  Attorney-General  was  the  prosecution 
of  John  Edwards,  at  the  January  term  of  the  courr^H^bad^stpn 
on  account  of  his  duel  with  Dennis  O'Dffecoll,  in  which  the 
latter  had  been  slain.  Three  witnesses  had  been  called  by  the 
Attorney- General  and  asked:  "Have  you  at  any  time  heard  the 
defendant  acknowledge  that  he  had  sent  a  challenge  to  the  late 
Mr.  Dennis  O'Driscoll,  or  accepted  one  from  him,  or  fought  a 
duel  with  him?"  The  witnesses  had  all  objected  to  answering, 
on  the  ground  that  the  answer  would  tend  to  criminate  them,  and 
against  the  contention  of  the  Attorney-General  that  an  answer  to 
this  question  could  in  no  way  criminate  them,  the  presiding  judge, 
Nott,  sustained  them  in  their  refusal,  deciding  that  they  were  the 
proper  judges  as  to  whether  an  answer  would  criminate  them; 
and  the  witnesses  being  thus  excluded,  the  defendant  was  acquitted. 
Hayne  promptly  appealed,  moving  for  a  new  trial  on  three  grounds : 
ist:  "Because  His  Honor  mistook  the  law  in  refusing  to  compel 
the  witnesses  to  answer  the  question  put  by  the  State.  2d:  Be- 
cause the  answer  to  the  question  could  not  criminate  the  witnesses, 
and  of  this  the  Court  (and  not  the  witnesses)  was  to  judge.  3d : 
Because  the  operation  of  the  decision  must  not  only  destroy  the 
Duelling  Law  but  will  protect  all  reluctant  witnesses  in  every 
criminal  case."  '    In  an  opinion  of  rather  subtle  reasoning,  Judge 

1  State  vi.  Edwards,  Nott  and  McCord's  Reports,  Vol.  2,  p.  13. 
82 


AS   ATTORNEY-GENERAL  83 

Nott  was  sustained ;  but  the  court  found  some  difficulty  in  disposing 
satisfactorily  of  the  third  ground,  declaring  only  that  it  did  "not 
conceive  the  doctrine  calculated  (as  was  contended)  to  protect 
reluctant  witnesses  generally.  For  it  is  clear,"  says  the  court, 
"that  if  a  witness  swear,  he  may  be  implicated  in  the  guilt  of  the 
accused,  if  he  answer  and  this  afterwards  appear  to  be  false,  he 
would  be  liable  to  an  indictment  for  perjury."  There  was  no  dis- 
sent ;  but  in  the  subsequent  case  of  Poole  vs.  Perritt *  based  on  it, 
two  out  of  the  five  judges  did  dissent.  Following  this  case  came  the 
very  next  month  the  trial  of  Martin  and  Michael  Touhey  for  the 
murder  of  Mr.  Gadsden,  where  the  Attorney- General  had  against 
him  William  Lance,  B.  F.  Hunt  and  William  Crafts,  the  result  of 
the  trial  being  the  conviction  of  one  of  murder  and  the  other,  man- 
slaughter.2 And  this  seems  to  have  been  accomplished  without 
any  great  degree  of  friction,  although  Lance  and  Crafts  were  men 
of  learning  and  eloquence;  while  Hunt  is  described  by  William 
Grayson,  in  his  memoir  of  James  L.  Petigru,  as  an  exceedingly 
formidable  adversary,  "able  speaker  and  good  lawyer;  bold, 
ready,  regardless  of  respect  to  opposing  counsel,  witnesses  or  cli- 
ents, and  unscrupulous  as  to  the  language  in  which  he  expressed 
his  contempt;  skilled  in  cajoling  the  jury  and  bullying  the  judge."  3 
These  were  the  criminal  cases  which  immediately  occupied  Hayne's 
attention  in  the  first  months  of  the  year  18 19.  On  the  civil  side 
of  the  court  he  was  from  the  very  outset  also  engaged  as  counsel  in 
cases  of  magnitude  and  far-reaching  effect;  but  before  alluding 
further  to  these,  a  survey  of  conditions  beyond  the  border  of  the 
State  is  necessary. 

Having  launched  his  Bank  scheme  and  suggested  his  inquiry 
as  to  the  appropriateness  of  utilizing  the  bonus  or  net  profits  there- 

1  Poole  vs.  Perritt,  Spear's  Reports,  Vol.  1,  p.  128. 

2  City  Gazette,  Feb.  1,  1819. 

8  Grayson,  "Memoir  of  James  L.  Petigru,"    p.  89. 


84  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

from,  Mr.  Calhoun  had  brought  to  a  close  with  the  session  of  1816 
his  brief  but  brilliant  career  in  Congress,  and  accepting  the  position 
of  Secretary  of  War  in  Monroe's  cabinet,  was  about  to  commence 
a  career  as  an  administrative  officer,  quite  as  remarkable.  According 
to  Walsh's  American  Register,  at  this  period  of  his  life,  Novem- 
ber 17,  181 7,  "he  had  shone  on  every  occasion,  which  called  for  an 
appeal  to  general  principles  and  for  enlarged  views  of  policy;"  1 
but  strong  as  he  was,  he  was  not  the  all-powerful  force  he  subse- 
quently became  in  South  Carolina,  and  in  State  and  nation  his 
influence  was  inferior  to  that  of  William  Lowndes,  to  whom  Monroe 
had  previously  offered  the  Secretaryship.  Again  the  elevation  from 
the  bench  to  a  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate  of  that  rugged,  ag- 
gressive, able  individual,  William  Smith,  could  not  by  any  stretch 
of  imagination  be  considered  the  promotion  of  a  supporter,  but 
rather  one  who  would  look  upon  him  as  a  junior.  In  addition  to 
this,  although  Calhoun  could  not  with  any  justice  be  held  respon- 
sible for  the  mismanagement  of  the  Bank,  yet  the  fact  that  it  was 
not  a  success  reacted  on  the  reputation  of  the  statesman  most 
instrumental  in  putting  it  in  operation.  Indeed,  there  was 
an  attempt  in  Congress  to  repeal  the  law,  and  the  Bank  was  only 
saved  through  the  persuasive  personality  of  Lowndes  2  and  the  rare 
business  ability  of  Cheves,  raised  to  the  presidency  of  the  institu- 
tion. 

On  the  face  of  affairs,  South  Carolina  seemed  prosperous.  Cot- 
ton was  selling  at  52  to  54  cents  for  Sea  Islands,  26  to  27  cents  for 
Uplands.3  Rice  was  bringing  from  5 J  to  6  cents,  and  tobacco, 
10  to  12  cents  per  pound;  but  the  market  was  getting  dull  and 
already  there  had  started  that  movement  of  whites  to  the  South- 
west,4 destined  to  reduce  the  white  population  below  the  black. 

1  City  Gazette,  Nov.  29,  181 7.  3  Ibid.,  Feb.  18,  1819. 

3  Ibid.,  Jan.  4,  181 9. 

4  John  C.  Calhoun  to  James  E.  Calhoun,  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  173. 


^     OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


1819. 


AS  ATTORNEY-GENERAL  85 

A  letter  written  from  Hayne  to  Mr.  Cheves  at  this  time  throws 
some  light  on  the  conditions  of  the  period :  — 

"Charleston,  22d  Feb.,  1819. 
"  My  dear  Sir  :  — 

"  You  must  give  me  leave  to  congratulate  you  most  sincerely  on 
your  election  to  the  Presidency  of  the  Bank,  inasmuch  as  the  situa- 
tion was  one  which  you  were  willing  to  accept  and  which  I  there- 
fore presume  was  more  desirable  than  the  station  you  lately  held 
among  us.  I  can  never  cease  to  regret,  however  that  So.  Carolina 
should  have  lost  you,  though  the  Union  be  the  gainer  &  were  I  less 
your  friend  than  I  truly  am,  my  selfish  feelings  would  induce  me 
rather  to  regret  than  rejoice  at  your  promotion.  I  can  however 
truly  say,  I  have  your  happiness  too  much  at  heart  to  hesitate  for 
a  moment  in  wishing  all  your  views  accomplished  —  I  know  they 
all  tend  to  the  public  good  —  The  station  you  now  occupy  must 
bring  with  it  many  distracting  cares  —  I  believe  the  Bank  to  be 
too  deeply  affected  by  recent  mismanagement  to  admit  of  any 
speedy  or  effectual  relief  —  And  I  fear  also  the  pecuniary  resources 
of  the  country  have  reed,  a  shock  from  the  state  of  the  specie  market 
from  which  it  cannot  soon  recover  —  On  that  subject  will  you  per- 
mit me  to  suggest,  as  hints  for  speculation  merely,  some  ideas 
which  have  lately  made  some  impression  on  my  mind.  I  am  wholly 
ignorant  of  the  subject,  have  made  it  no  part  of  my  course  of  study 
&  therefore  the  ideas  I  am  about  to  throw  out  are  intended  merely 
as  matters  for  your  reflection.  It  appears  to  me,  that  specie  has 
for  a  few  years  past  been  rapidly  diminishing  in  every  part  of  the 
U.  S.  In  this  City  I  know  it  has  diminished  greatly  in  the  last 
12  months  —  It  has  done  so  I  am  informed  in  every  City  in  America 
and  continues  to  do  so  —  Unless  the  tide  turns  speedily  (of  which 
I  see  no  prospect)  the  inevitable  result  must  be  the  loss  of  the  whole 
of  it.     Long  before  that  period  shall  arrive,  however,  the  Banks 


86  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

must  stop  specie  payments.  Indeed  while  specie  bears  a  premium, 
no  bank  can  transact  business  to  any  extent  —  Suppose  a  Bank  to 
have  $1,000,000  in  specie  and  to  issue  bills  to  that  amount  only  — 
if  specie  is  at  a  premium  these  bills  will  be  returned  on  the  Bank 
and  every  dollar  of  the  specie  taken  out.  So  that  a  Bank  must 
stop  all  business  ( &  in  that  case  it  cannot  exist)  or  lose  all  its  specie. 
There  are  checks  on  this  draft  for  specie  —  but  while  the  Banks 
as  well  as  Individuals  are  all  hot  in  the  pursuit  of  specie  —  the 
result  is  inevitable.  We  have  now  in  this  city  agents  for  Virginia 
Banks  buying  up  Bank  notes  &  drawing  out  specie  —  It  seems  to 
me,  that  the  final  result  will  be  a  stoppage  of  specie  paymts  by 
all  the  Banks  &  then  we  will  find  it  necessary  to  follow  the  example 
of  G.  B.  &  deal  on  paper  —  The  time  is  approaching  rapidly  when 
Gold  &  Silver  will  be  regarded  as  merchandize  only  &  bills  will 
become  the  current  coin  &  only  representative  of  property  —  Sup- 
pose the  capital  of  a  Bank  to  consist  of  $1,000,000  of  Government 
stock  &  that  on  this  they  were  strictly  limited  to  the  issue  of  Bills 
to  the  amount  of  a  million  and  a  half  —  might  not  such  bills 
constitute  a  circulating  medium  &  be  a  legal  tender?  Further, 
suppose  part  of  the  capital  of  such  a  Bank  to  consist  of  real  and  per- 
sonal estate  of  a  certain  value,  or  of  the  notes  of  individuals  (which 
would  represent  and  bind  their  property),  would  it  not  be  as  good 
as  specie?  On  this  system  too  specie  being  merely  an  article  of 
trade,  would  soon  cease  to  be  above  par  &  would  circulate  freely 
in  the  community.  If  specie  were  not  essential  to  Banks,  we  would 
have  it  in  abundance  —  The  danger  of  an  excessive  issue  of  paper 
might  be  guarded  against  by  constitutional  &  legal  checks.  To 
produce  these  changes  may  require  a  combination  of  all  the  states 
—  perhaps  of  nations  —  but  it  seems  to  me  to  this  we  must  come 
unless  we  can  by  some  means  draw  specie  into  the  Country.  The 
people  of  Charleston  are  suffering  most  severely  from  the  draft 
of  mother  Bank.     I  am  sorry  you  will  on  your  arrival  meet  a  pro- 


AS   ATTORNEY-GENERAL  87 

test  from  our  directors  on  this  subject  —  the  truth  is  that  every 
$100,000.  drawn  in  that  way  from  the  City  has  injured  us  more  than 
the  loss  of  a  million  of  property  —  in  the  precautionary  measures 
it  has  rendered  necessary  on  the  part  of  the  Banks.  Our  produce 
will  be  down  to  nothing  —  The  people  of  Charleston  complain 
that  their  zeal  in  supporting  and  subscribing  to  the  Bank  —  their 
paying  every  cent  of  their  subscription  in  specie  —  their  careful 
mode  of  doing  business,  has  only  had  the  effect  of  draining  the  City 
of  its  specie,  to  supply  the  places  where  the  same  careful  and  hon- 
orable course  has  not  been  pursued.  The  Directors  at  Pennsyl- 
vania seem  resolved,  that  there  shall  be  a  community  of  suffering 
&  the  innocent  must  share  with  the  guilty.  Savanna  has  dis- 
counted more  injudiciously  than  Charleston,  ergo  the  latter  must 
supply  the  former.  It  is  ever  to  be  lamented  that  such  a  state  of 
things  exist  —  I  fear  another  draft  from  Pa.,  under  existing  cir- 
cumstances will  produce  many  resignations  at  our  board.  I  have 
ventured  to  throw  out  these  ideas  —  I  do  not  desire  you  to  give  one 
of  them  a  second  thought,  much  less  to  reply  to  them  but  possibly 
they  may  suggest  some  hint  of  which  your  more  experienced  mind 
may  make  good  use  —  if  so,  my  object  is  attained.  .  .  ."  * 

The  foregoing  letter  to  Mr.  Cheves  was  followed  by  another 
within  the  week,  wherein  Hayne  sets  out  some  difficulties  which 
have  arisen  through  the  Directors  at  Philadelphia  having  ordered 
the  abolition  of  the  office  of  solicitor,  he  holding  that  office  for  the 
branch  at  Charleston.  From  this  it  appears  that  the  arrangement 
under  which  he  so  held  provided  that  his  salary  should  be  $500 
a  year,  the  Bank  to  be  liable  for  no  costs ;  but  the  solicitor  to  pay 
those  of  clerk  and  sheriff  when  defendant  was  insolvent.2  By 
the  change  he  argued  that  the  Bank  would  lose,  which  seems  a 
reasonable  supposition.  The  value  to  him  of  the  salary  was  the 
certainty  and  the  freedom  from  the  necessity  of  fixing  charges, 

1  Original  letter  in  possession  of  Langdon  Cheves,  Esq.  a  Ibid. 


88  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

Under  date  of  April  30,  he  writes  again,  a  letter  wholly  occupied 
with  private  business  to  the  conclusion,  which  is,  "The  com- 
mercial distress  here  is  very  great  —  tho  the  presence  of  Mr.  Mon- 
roe seems  for  the  moment  to  make  us  lose  sight  of  it."  * 

As,  in  the  newspaper  accounts  of  President  Monroe's  visit  to 
Charleston,  Hayne's  name  does  not  appear  on  any  committees, 
this  probably  was  the  period  of  the  loss  of  his  wife,  the  daughter  of 
Charles  Pinckney. 

In  the  nation,  the  great  and  powerful  Republican  party  was 
splitting  into  fragments,  ranged  behind  the  group  of  leaders  who 
had  directed  it  against  the  Federalists.  Clay  was  in  open  oppo- 
sition to  the  administration ; 2  Crawford,  although  in  the  cabinet, 
an  aspirant  for  the  Presidential  nomination,  with  Calhoun  and 
Adams  in  close  touch,  favorable  to  a  second  term  for  the  incum- 
bent. 

With  that  supreme  self-confidence  which  so  often  betrayed  him, 
Clay  determined  to  sweep  from  his  path  the  hero  of  New  Orleans. 
Pressing  an  inquiry  concerning  the  seizure  of  the  Spanish  forts 
by  the  latter  in  Florida,  he  only  obtained  for  him  a  justification 
marked  by  a  vote  in  the  House  of  100  to  70,3  thereby  drawing  into 
public  observation  another  possible  Presidential  candidate. 

This  in  all  probability  was  the  year  in  which  Robert  Y.  Hayne 
first  met  General  Jackson.  In  a  letter,  a  score  of  years  later, 
his  brother,  Arthur  P.  Hayne,  states  that  his  first  meeting  with 
Jackson  in  Tennessee  was  in  1820;  but  the  mistake  of  one  year 
is  natural,  and  in  this  year  Hayne  travelled  through  the  West  and 
was  in  Tennessee.  It  seems  hardly  likely  that  such  an  elaborate 
journey  as  a  trip  from  South  Carolina  through  Alabama,  Tennes- 
see and  Kentucky  should  have  been  made  two  years  in  succession 
by  a  busy  young  attorney;  but  of  course  it  is  possible,  and  it  must 

1  Original  letter  in  possession  of  Langdon  Cheves,  Esq.,  dated  April  30,  1819. 
a  Courier,  June  19,  1818.  3  City  Gazette,  Feb.  17,  1819. 


AS   ATTORNEY-GENERAL  89 

be  admitted,  that  a  meeting  with  the  subsequent  destroyer  of  the 
Bank,  the  most  distinguished  soldier  in  America  of  that  day,  would 
have  been  apt  to  have  left  an  impression  sufficiently  strong  as  to 
have  been  a  subject  alluded  to  in  his  letters  of  that  year,  upon  his 
return,  to  Mr.  Cheves.  No  mention  of  Jackson  appears,  however. 
On  the  24th  of  June,  1819,  Hayne  writes  from  Charleston :  "I  have 
made  my  arrangements  for  a  tour  to  the  West  this  summer  —  the 
nature  of  our  climate  seems  to  require  occasional  relaxation  of  this 
kind  —  I  propose  in  consequence  of  some  important  business 
confided  to  my  care  to  pass  thro  the  Alabama  territory  &  will 
leave  this  in  a  few  days."  Three  months  and  a  half  later  he  writes 
from  Pendleton  Courthouse,  October  9,  18 19 :  — 

" My  dear  Sir:  — 

"I  wrote  you  from  Charleston  of  my  intention  of  visiting  the 
western  country  this  summer,  since  which  of  course  I  have  not 
had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  from  you.  The  very  difficult  and 
arduous  station  you  now  occupy  at  the  head  of  an  Institution  beset 
with  so  many  difficulties,  induced  me  to  be  an  attentive  observer 
of  everything  in  the  Western  Country,  calculated  to  advance  the 
Interests  of  that  Institution.  As  I  think  it  of  some  importance  that 
you  should  be  advised  of  the  state  of  affairs  in  that  country,  I  now 
sit  down  for  the  express  purpose  of  giving  you  the  result  of  my 
observations.  I  have  found  in  general,  that  the  bank  of  the  U.  S. 
is  unpopular  —  but  it  gives  me  the  highest  satisfaction  to  add,  that 
the  public  confidence  in  yourself  personally  is  very  great  and  the 
prevailing  opinion  everywhere  is,  that  the  affairs  of  the  Bank  will 
in  future  be  honestly  and  ably  conducted.  In  Kentucky  the  opera- 
tion of  the  "Independent  Banks"  and  the  general  ruin  produced 
by  their  failure,  has  had  a  tendency  I  think  to  make  the  Bank  of 
the  U.  S.  rather  more  popular  —  But  the  constant  cry  of  the  friends 
of  the  Banks  is  that  the  U.  S.  Bank  has  alone  produced  the  failure 


po  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

of  the  former  and  all  the  evils  now  felt  in  the  State.  By  continued 
and  ingenious  efforts,  it  may  happen  that  the  people  may  be  led 
to  take  the  same  view  of  the  subject  &  should  they  find  themselves 
supported  by  public  opinion,  some  violent  act  will  probably  mark 
the  proceedings  of  their  next  Legislature.  The  avowed  and  secret 
enemies  of  the  Bank  of  the  U.  S.  in  Kentucky  will,  I  think,  com- 
pose a  majority  of  the  next  Legislature  —  One  influential  man 
distinctly  stated  to  me,  that  he  was  in  favor  of  driving  out  the  Bank 
by  force  of  arms ;  and  the  sufferings  of  the  people  are  now  so  great, 
that  artful  men  have  the  most  inflammable  materials  to  work 
upon.  In  Tennessee  the  feeling  against  the  Bank  is  not  so  strong 
or  so  general  —  but  most  certainly  the  state  of  the  public  mind 
would  not  at  present  render  it  expedient  to  establish  a  Branch 
among  them.  In  Alabama  such  alarm  prevails  on  the  score  of  the 
evils  of  our  banking  &  the  paper  system,  that  constitutional  pro- 
visions have  been  adopted  to  prevent  their  introduction.  The 
Bank  of  the  U.  S.  is  not  unpopular  there  &  it  appears  to  me  that 
a  Branch  could  now  be  established  at  Cahaba  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment with  every  reasonable  prospect  of  success.  Cahaba  is  de- 
cidedly the  best  place  for  such  an  institution  —  it  will  be  the 
center  of  commerce  &  must  become  a  considerable  town.  At 
present  a  Bank  would  add  to  its  importance  and  therefore  would 
be  popular  &  a  Branch  of  your  Bank  would  be  the  most  popular 
of  any  —  On  this  subject  I  would  advise  you  to  consult  with 
Col.  John  Taylor,  now  in  Philadelphia  who  can  give  the  best 
information  in  relation  to  it.  I  am  satisfied  that  a  removal  of  the 
Kentucky  banks  to  Alabama  would  be  attended  by  beneficial 
results,  the  profits  would  be  greater  and  the  people  of  Kentucky 
would  see  the  falsehood  of  the  representation  now  making  to  them. 
In  South  Carolina  I  think  the  U.  S.  Bank  not  unpopular  in  the  back 
country  &  nothing  is  to  be  feared  from  the  Legislature  of  this 
state  unless  unfavorable  representations  should  be  made  by  the 


AS   ATTORNEY-GENERAL  91 

President  &  Directors  of  our  State  Bank,  in  Charleston.  That 
Bank  is  you  know  the  favorite  child  of  the  State  &  the  confidence 
reposed  in  Mr.  Elliott  is  so  great,  that  any  statement  coming  from 
him  will  be  deemed  conclusive.  I  certainly  deem  it  of  the  last 
importance  to  preserve  a  good  understanding  with  that  Bank. 
Nothing  short  of  absolute  necessity  should  produce  a  breach  with 
them,  the  consea^ences  would  be  unpleasant.  These  few  hints  are 
suggested  merely  for  your  consideration  &  I  by  no  means  desire 
you  to  give  yourself  the  trouble  of  explaining  your  views  on  the 
subject.  I  avoid  more  minute  details  to  prevent  my  trespassing 
on  your  time  —  This  has  been  a  summer  of  great  distress  in 
Charleston  &  it  seems  Pa.  had  had  its  share  —  our  friend  Mr. 
Simons  has  been  numbered  with  the  dead.  The  intelligence  of 
this  melancholy  event  has  filled  my  heart  with  sorrow.  I  may 
truly  say  I  had  an  affection  for  him  —  You  probably  are  aware 
that  he  was  destined  to  fill  the  vacancy  occasioned  by  your  resig- 
nation on  the  Bench.  His  success  was  reduced  to  a  certainty.  In 
this  point  of  view,  his  loss  is  I  fear  irreparable.  The  two  vacancies 
on  the  Bench  will  now  be  filled  from  the  following  list  of  candidates, 
viz :  Blanding,  Starke,  D.  R.  Evans,  Clarke  and  Ellison  —  I  have 
myself  no  views  of  that  nature.  The  Bar  must  command  my 
attention  for  several  years  to  come,  etc."  l 

From  his  elevation  to  the  bench  in  1816  and  removal  from  the 
State  in  this  year,  18 19,  what  influence  Cheves  might  have  wielded 
was  disposed  of.  Senator  Smith  represented  the  extreme  State 
Rights  view,  to  which  Crawford  inclined.  Clay,  and  later  Adams, 
had  some  followers ;  but  the  State  was  friendly  to  the  liberal  view 
represented  by  Calhoun,  and  with  even  greater  influence  by  William 
Lowndes.  Yet  we  see,  from  the  above  letter  of  Hayne,  that  with 
regard  to  financial  matters,  the  opinion  of  Elliott,  whom  Lowndes 

1  Original  in  possession  of  Langdon  Cheves,  Esq. 


92  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

had  defeated  for  Congress  some  five  years  previous,  was  conclusive. 
From  these  facts,  and  from  an  argument  made  this  year  by  Hayne, 
which  drew  from  Judge  Nott  a  most  remarkable  political  opinion, 
we  might  assume  that  politics  in  South  Carolina  were  in  a  state  of 
flux,  liable  to  be  affected  by  any  incident  which  might  bring  about 
a  decided  trend  in  any  direction.  This  makes  Nott's  opinion  all 
the  more  interesting. 


CHAPTER    VII 

JUDGE  NOTT'S  OPINION  ON  NULLIFICATION 

Cases  with  which  he  probably  was  connected  before  he  became 
Attorney- General  were  argued  before  the  Appellate  Court  by 
Hayne  after  his  advancement  in  this  year  of  1819,  and  in  not  a 
few  he  was  either  associated  with  or  in  opposition  to  that  distin- 
guished lawyer,  about  to  be  elevated  to  the  bench,  whose  death 
he  mentioned  to  Mr.  Cheves  in  the  fall  of  the  year.  The  case 
of  Alexander  vs.  Gibson,  argued  by  Hayne  in  conjunction  with 
K.  L.  Simons  on  a  motion  for  a  new  trial,  had  so  impressed  Judge 
Cheves,  then  on  the  bench,  that  he  had  found  it  necessary  to  ex- 
press his  opinion  on  many  of  the  constitutional  points  involved,1  but 
the  case  of  Bulow  and  Potter  vs.  The  City  Council,2  at  which  hear- 
ing he  does  not  seem  to  have  been  present,  presented  even  greater 
and  more  important  questions  to  the  court.  In  that  case,  by  an 
ordinance  of  the  City  Council  of  Charleston,  an  assessment  of  one- 
half  per  cent  was  directed  to  be  made  on  all  Bank  stock  owned 
within  the  city,  to  be  valued  at  one-half,  except  that  which  was 
exempted  from  taxation  by  acts  of  the  Legislature,  which  excep- 
tion did  not  include  United  States  Bank  stock.  Under  the  authority 
of  this  ordinance,  an  assessment  was  made  on  the  plaintiffs,  who 
were  citizens  and  residents  within  the  city  of  Charleston,  on  ac- 
count of  United  States  Bank  stock,  to  a  considerable  extent  owned 
by  them;   and  on  application  to  the  Circuit  Court  an  order  was 

1  Alexander  vs.  Gibson,  Nott  and  McCord's  Reports,  Vol.  I,  p.  480. 
3  Nott  and  McCord's  Reports,  Vol.  1,  p.  527. 

93 


94  ROBERT  Y.    HAYNE 

obtained  that  a  writ  of  prohibition  issue  to  restrain  the  City  Coun- 
cil from  the  collection  of  the  assessment. 

It  was  an  odd  coincidence  that  William  Drayton,  who  subse- 
quently left  the  city  and  State  on  account  of  nullification,  was  at 
that  time  the  Recorder,  or  legal  adviser,  of  the  city,  and  still  more 
interesting  that  he  should  have  called  to  his  assistance  of  all  men, 
Robert  Y.  Hayne.  The  plaintiffs,  however,  had  strong  counsel, 
K.  L.  Simons  being  one,  and  the  Attorney- General  was  called  upon 
to  assist  counsel  for  the  city.  A  motion  was  made  to  reverse  the 
order  on  the  ground  that  the  ordinance  was  within  the  powers  of 
the  Council,  and  neither  repugnant  to,  nor  inconsistent  with,  the 
laws  of  the  land.  For  the  motion,  it  was  contended,  that  the  Bank 
was  a  "great  monied  monopoly,  which  in  the  hands  of  the  General 
Government  would  become  a  gulph  in  the  vortex  of  which  every 
minor  institution  would  be  swallowed  up."  It  was  compared  to 
the  lever  of  Archimedes,  by  which  the  constitutions  of  the  States 
might  be  overturned.  From  the  above  it  is  apparent  that  the  argu- 
ment took  a  wide  range,  but  the  motion  to  reverse  the  order  of 
prohibition  was  sustained  in  a  clear  and  luminous  opinion,  by  Judge 
Johnson  as  neither  repugnant  to,  nor  inconsistent  with,  the  laws 
of  the  land,  in  which  he  stated  with  the  concurrence  of  all  of  the 
members  of  the  court,  except  Judge  Nott,  "  that  the  case  does  not 
present  a  question  as  to  the  exercise  of  inconsistent  powers  between 
the  State  authority  and  that  of  the  United  States ;  but  between  the 
State  and  its  citizens,  or,  in  other  words,  whether  the  State  authority 
has  a  right  to  draw  on  the  sources  of  the  wealth  of  its  citizens 
to  support  and  defray  the  expenses  of  the  government?"  While 
declaring  it  not  within  the  sphere  of  a  court  of  justice,  the  judge 
deprecated  the  policy  of  the  ordinance.  From  the  opinion  of  the 
majority,  Judge  Nott  dissented.  Excusing  himself  from  express- 
ing at  the  time  anything  but  the  most  prominent  grounds  of  his 
dissent,  he  declared:   "I  consider  it  the  most  important  question 


JUDGE   NOTTS   OPINION   ON   NULLIFICATION  95 

that  has  occupied  the  attention  of  this  court,  since  I  have  had  the 
honor  of  a  seat  on  the  bench,  and  I  therefore  approach  it  with  more 
than  ordinary  diffidence  and  solicitude."  As  will  be  remembered, 
Judge  Nott  had  been  elevated  to  the  bench  eight  years  previously,  just 
about  the  time  of  the  Faneuil  Hall  nullification  resolutions  at  Boston,1 
which  had  been  indorsed  with  that  threat  of  forcible  resistance, 
giving  to  them  a  life  nothing  of  the  kind  previously  had  possessed. 
The  successful  close  of  the  War  of  181 2  had  probably  saved  a  struggle 
over  nullification  and  probably  secession  many  decades  before  they 
both  came;  but  an  impression  with  regard  to  the  nature  of  the 
Union  had  been  created  by  this  threat,  and  the  vote  by  which 
Quincy's  appeal  from  the  decision  of  the  Speaker,  ruling  out  of 
order  an  assertion  of  the  right  of  secession,  had  been  sustained,  which 
was  absolutely  at  variance  with  the  conception  of  the  Union  set  forth 
by  Charles  Pinckney  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
in  1788.2  Nott's  view  was  in  accord  with  that  of  Pinckney  as 
then  stated.  "It  is  not,"  says  he,  " merely  a  question  whether  the 
City  Council  has  the  power  to  impose  a  tax  on  Bank  stock.  Neither 
is  it  a  question  between  the  United  States  and  an  individual  State. 
But  the  real  question  which  we  are  called  upon  to  decide  is,  whether 
when  Congress  has  adopted  a  measure  confessedly  within  its  ju- 
risdiction, any  corporate  body  existing  under  the  authority  of  a 
State,  and  having  the  power  to  pass  by-laws,  may  by  one  of  its 
ordinances  directly  defeat  such  Act  of  the  General  Government? 
The  great  objects  of  the  federal  compact  are  declared  to  be  'to 
form  a  more  perfect  union,  to  establish  justice,  insure  domestic 
tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  defence,  promote  the  general 
welfare  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty.'  To  effect  these  great 
and  important  objects,  certain  powers  are  delegated  to  the  General 
Government;  and  it  seems  now  to  be  admitted  by  all  the  com- 
mentators on  the  Federal  Constitution,  that  where  the  exercise  of 

1  Courier,  April  23,  181 1.  2  State  Gazette,  June  9,  1788. 


96  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

any  power  by  a  State  is  inconsistent  with  or  incompatible  with 
such  delegation,  it  must  be  considered  as  exclusively  granted  to  the 
General  Government.  It  is  also  further  declared  that  Congress 
shall  have  power  to  pass  all  laws  necessary  to  carry  into  effect  all 
the  powers  so  delegated  by  the  Constitution.  .  .  .  For  what  pur- 
pose let  it  be  asked  does  the  Constitution  contain  such  a  provision, 
if  the  operation  of  any  Act  of  Congress  may  be  defeated  by  an  Act 
emanating  from  the  authority  of  a  State?  If  such  is  the  situation 
of  our  Government,  it  does  appear  to  me  the  people  of  the  United 
States  have  failed  in  the  attempt  to  effect,  at  least,  one  of  the  great 
and  avowed  objects  of  the  Confederation,  that  of  securing  to  them- 
selves and  their  posterity, '  domestic  tranquillity. '  I  cannot  conceive 
a  more  effectual  source  of  domestic  discord  than  a  power  in  the 
States  to  resist  or  defeat  the  operation  of  a  Constitutional  Act  of 
the  General  Government."  He  then  argues  that  a  court  is  con- 
cerned in  some  cases  with  the  policy  of  a  measure  before  it,  because 
"we  can  consider  the  old  law,  the  mischief  existing  under  it,  and 
the  remedy  intended  to  be.  applied.  .  .  ."  Then,  after  declaring 
that  the  constitutionality  of  a  State  law  is  tested  by  its  compati- 
bility with  the  powers  rightfully  held  by  Congress,  he  closes  that 
branch  of  his  opinion  with  this  sentence :  "Two  conflicting  powers, 
tending  to  neutralize  each  other,  cannot  exist  together  in  any 
Government."  In  an  exceedingly  clear  discussion  of  the  correc- 
tion of  evil,  he  maintains:  "If  the  powers  of  Congress  are  too 
great,  they  may  be  abridged  by  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution. 
If  they  are  abused,  they  may  be  corrected  by  a  change  of  repre- 
sentation. If  they  are  exceeded,  they  may  be  controlled  by  the 
judiciary.  But  to  give  to  one  Government  the  power  of  passing 
laws,  and  to  another  the  right  to  resist  them,  or  to  defeat  their 
operations,  or  rather  to  give  to  a  Government  a  power  to  legislate 
and  to  a  single  member  or  branch  of  it  to  defeat  its  acts,  would  be 
like  harnessing  horses  to  the  hindmost  part  of  the  carriage  to  check 


JUDGE   NOTTS   OPINION   ON   NULLIFICATION  97 

the  impetuosity  of  those  in  front.  It  would  necessarily  lead  to  a 
contest  for  power.  And  whether  the  machine  would  move  for- 
ward or  go  backward  or  be  torn  asunder  in  the  struggle,  would 
depend  on  the  relative  force  of  the  conflicting  powers."  Judge 
Nott  had  no  idea  that  by  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
we  became  dwellers  in  Utopia.  Far  from  it;  for  in  all  sincerity 
he  continues:  "That  our  liberties  may  be  destroyed  by  an  abuse 
of  the  power  vested  in  Congress,  I  admit.  Too  liberal  a  use  of  the 
single  power  to  raise  armies  might  prostrate  the  liberties  of  the 
American  people.  There  is  no  good  government  which  has  not 
the  power  to  destroy  the  liberties  of  the  people.  No  government 
can  be  good  which  has  not  such  power.  Without  the  power  to 
destroy,  the  government  could  not  possess  the  means  to  protect 
our  liberties."  But  he  says  he  forbears  to  press  the  argument 
further,  hoping  he  may  be  mistaken  in  the  view  he  has  taken ;  but 
declaring  in  conclusion  that  if  he  is  not,  and  the  decision  "goes  to 
establish  the  principle  that  any  body  emanating  from  the  author- 
ity of  a  State  may  undertake  to  judge  of  the  policy  of  an  Act  of 
Congress,  which  is  admitted  to  be  constitutional  and  may  adopt 
such  contravailing  measures  as  have  a  direct  tendency  to  defeat 
its  operation  or  to  prevent  it  from  being  carried  into  effect,  these 
United  States  may  bid  farewell,  a  long  farewell,  to  all  their  great- 
ness." 1  This  opinion  of  Judge  Nott  is  in  exact  accord  with  the 
view  of  Charles  Pinckney  before  quoted  in  part,  even  to  that  claim 
for  the  General  Government  of  the  necessary  power  to  protect  the 
liberties  of  the  citizens. 

Says  Pinckney,  in  that  great  speech:  "To  the  Union  we  will 
look  up  as  to  the  temple  of  our  freedom  —  a  temple  founded  in 
the  affection  and  supported  by  the  virtues  of  the  people  —  here  we 
will  pour  out  our  gratitude  to  the  author  of  all  good  for  suffering 

1  Bulow  and  Potter  vs.  City  Council,  Nott  and  McCord's  Reports,  Vol.  1,  pp.  531- 
536. 

H 


98  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

us  to  participate  in  the  rights  of  a  people  who  govern  themselves. 
Is  there  at  this  moment  a  nation  upon  earth  that  enjoys  this  right, 
where  the  true  principles  of  representation  are  understood  and 
practised  and  where  all  authority  flows  from  and  returns  to  the 
people?  I  answer  there  is  not.  Can  a  government  be  said  to 
be  free  where  these  rights  do  not  exist?  It  cannot.  On  what 
depends  the  enjoyment  of  these  rare  inestimable  privileges  —  on 
the  firmness,  on  the  power  of  the  union  to  protect  and  defend 
them."  * 

So  much  for  the  question  of  the  nature  of  the  Union.  But 
to  pass  from  it  in  its  whole,  and  consider  that  of  comity  between 
the  States,  we  find  that  even  the  brilliant  but  extreme  McDuffie, 
who  with  Lance  and  Witherspoon  had  contended  in  opposition  to 
Hayne,  Simons  and  Huger  for  the  right  to  bring,  without  special 
license  from  the  Legislature,  such  slaves  as  were  desired,  from  other 
States  or  from  Territories,  now  sought  to  amend  the  bill  prohibiting 
the  introduction  of  free  persons  of  color  by  excepting  its  applica- 
tion from  such  as  hailed  from  States  where  they  enjoyed  the  rights 
of  citizens.  It  is  true  that  the  amendment  was  voted  down;  but 
at  the  same  time  an  effort  was  made,  and  successfully,  to  secure  more 
severe  penalties  for  the  killing  of  negroes,  the  fine  being  raised  from 
£50  to  $1000,  together  with  twelve  months'  imprisonment  and  the 
incapacity  of  the  convict  to  hold  any  office  of  profit  or  trust  in  the 
State ; 2  so  that  it  is  apparent  that  while  for  industrial  development, 
against  the  advice  of  the  wisest,  slaves  were  brought  in  without 
restriction  from  other  States  and  Territories,  yet  a  humanitarian 
spirit  was  in  growth  with  regard  to  their  treatment,  and  among  the 
leaders  a  desire  to  consider  the  views  with  regard  to  the  race  in 
States  where  a  sincere  desire  was  evinced  to  uplift  the  freedman. 
This  spirit  was  pretty  well  burnt  out  of  the  South  by  the  flaming 
debate  which  blazed  up  in  Congress  at  this  session. 

1  State  Gazette,  June  9,  1788.  3  City  Gazette,  Dec.  4,  1819. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE   RISE    OF    THE    NEGRO    QUESTION  AND  ITS   COROLLARY,    THE 

TARIFF 

On  December  22,  1819,  Taylor  of  New  York  moved  the  amend- 
ment which  precipitated  the  great  debate,  occupying  the  session 
and  culminating  in  the  Missouri  Compromise.  This  debate  was 
in  every  sense  of  the  word  exhaustive.  From  the  speeches  which 
have  been  preserved,  almost  every  possible  phase  of  the  question 
seems  to  have  been  considered.  The  division  was  not  absolutely 
sectional,  a  few  Northerners,  as,  for  instance,  Baldwin  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  Holmes  of  Massachusetts,  spoke  and  voted  against 
the  amendment,  just  as  Ervin  of  South  Carolina  voted  for  the 
proposed  Baldwin  tariff,  introduced  the  same  session;  but  the 
vast  preponderance  of  the  votes  for  the  amendment  prohibiting 
slavery  in  Missouri  and  for  the  increased  duties  under  the  Baldwin 
bill  were  from  the  North  and  West,  those  in  opposition  from  the 
South.  The  speeches  on  the  Missouri  question  were  many  of  them 
lengthy,  that  of  Mr.  Sergeant  of  Pennsylvania  occupying  five  hours 
and  forty  minutes.1  This  speech  for  the  amendment  was  the  one 
of  greatest  length;  but  Lowndes,  Clay  and  Holmes  against  it, 
each  spoke  for  more  than  three  hours,  and  Smyth  of  Virginia,  on 
the  same  side,  for  four  hours  and  a  half.  Taylor,  the  mover  of  the 
amendment,  spoke  for  almost  two  hours,  and  Charles  Pinckney, 
most  interestingly  for  fifty  minutes.  Pinckney' s  speech  is  chiefly  in- 
teresting and  valuable  on  account  of  the  historical  data  it  supplies 

1  City  Gazette,  March  9,  1820. 
99 


ioo  ROBERT  Y.    HAYNE 

on  many  interesting  points ;  but  his  main  contention,  that  Congress 
did  not  have  the  power  to  impose  the  restriction,  came  too  late. 
Congress  had  before  exercised  the  power  of  admitting  a  State  under 
what  restrictions  it  saw  fit  to  impose,  as  for  instance,  in  1811,  when, 
against  the  protest  of  Fisk  of  New  York,  the  amendment  of  the 
Senate  to  the  House  bill,  with  regard  to  the  Orleans  territory,  had 
been  the  imposition  of  a  condition,  viz.,  the  confining  of  the 
privilege  to  "white"  free  male  inhabitants.  Fisk  had  contended, 
with  apparently  but  little  fact  as  a  basis,  that  "in  almost  all  the 
States  free  persons,  whether  black  or  white  or  colored,  if  they  had 
the  proper  qualifications  otherwise,  were  allowed  to  vote";  but 
with  scarcely  any  discussion  the  majority  asserted  the  power  of 
Congress  to  make  the  condition  in  that  territory  that  the  voter 
should  be  white.  To  come  even  closer,  however,  John  Randolph, 
a  vehement  opponent  of  the  amendment,  had  at  the  outset  of  the 
discussion  mined  the  position  of  his  own  side  by  suggesting  to 
Taylor  that  the  latter  had,  in  that  portion  of  his  motion  which  con- 
cerned the  inhabitants  of  the  territory,  omitted  the  word  "white,"  * 
which  Taylor  agreed  to  correct  without  apparently  realizing  its 
value  to  his  own  side.  On  the  other  hand,  inasmuch  as  the  matter 
was  finally  settled  by  a  compromise,  by  which  Missouri  and  all 
the  territory  to  the  southward  of  36°3o'  was  admitted  free  of  the 
restriction,  which  the  amendment  aimed  to  impose,  the  argument 
of  Sergeant  ("that  any  compromise  that  would  give  slavery  to 
Missouri  is  impossible,"  for  the  reason  that,  without  the  amend- 
ment, "Missouri,  when  she  becomes  a  State,  grows  out  of  the 
Constitution;  is  formed  under  the  care  of  Congress;  admitted  by 
Congress;  and  has  a  right  to  establish  slavery,  derived  directly 
from  the  Constitution,  conferred  upon  her  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  Congress")  2  becomes  a  boomerang. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  editor  of  Niles's  Register,  Speaker  Clay 

*  City  Gazette,  March  8,  1820.  2  Niles's  Register,  Vol.  18,  pp.  379-383. 


THE   RISE   OF   THE   NEGRO    QUESTION  ioi 

and  Mr.  Lowndes  were  the  most  powerful  opponents  to  the  amend- 
ment.1 In  the  case  of  the  latter,  the  fact  that  his  speech  has  been 
lost  is  certainly  to  be  regretted ;  for  he  was  at  this  time  distinctly 
the  strongest  representative  in  Congress. 

A  sketch  of  the  Speaker  and  Mr.  Lowndes  as  they  appeared  to 
a  member  of  Congress  from  Pennsylvania,  just  at  this  time,  is  not 
without  historical  interest  as  the  view  of  a  contemporary  actor 
close  enough  to  both  to  see  their  defects  clearly  as  well  as  the 
elements  of  strength  and  statesmanship.  Here  is  how  the  two 
appear  to  him:  "Mr.  Clay  is  warm,  vehement  and  when  fairly 
engaged  almost  headlong  in  his  eloquence.  To  use  a  backwoods 
simile,  he  seems  as  though  he  would  fly  off  the  helve  during  the 
paroxysms  of  eloquence.  He  sometimes  descends  to  mimic  the 
manner  of  his  opponents,  and  yet  if  the  waggery  were  retorted  upon 
him,  it  would  certainly  exhibit  a  scene  no  less  ludicrous.  The  lan- 
guage of  Mr.  Clay,  though  seldom  select  and  scarcely  ever  classi- 
cally polished,  is  always  forcible.  He  is  unquestionably  a  powerful 
speaker  and  will  always  have  considerable  influence  in  a  popular 
assembly.  .  .  .  Mr.  Lowndes  is  undoubtedly  the  most  influential 
member  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  His  eloquence  is  neither 
showy  nor  graceful ;  but  his  mildness  and  candor,  superadded  to 
the  useful  information  which  he  brings  into  the  discussion  of  every 
important  topic,  win  upon  the  confidence  of  the  House  and  give 
a  weight  to  his  opinions  which  can  never  be  acquired  by  declama- 
tory vehemence  nor  pointed  sarcasm.  Mr.  Lowndes  stands,  as  it 
were,  on  the  isthmus  between  the  contending  parties  in  the  hall, 
and  by  means  of  his  influence  which  he  has  obtained  is  enabled  to 
moderate  the  dashing  of  the  billows  on  either  hand.  A  suggestion 
from  him  will  often  avert  a  proposition  of  menacing  aspect  and 
change  the  direction  of  a  debate  which  promised  nothing  better  than 
angry  repartees  or  noisy  harangues.     Such   men  are   not   only 

1  Ibid.,  Vol.  1 8,  p.  449. 


102  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

valuable  to  their  immediate  constituents,  but  to  the  nation  at 
large."  ' 

The  full  report  of  the  speech  of  such  a  man  on  such  a  subject 
would  be  worth  much.  In  the  "Life  and  Times  of  William 
Lowndes"  the  author  states,  "In  this  controversy,  Mr.  Lowndes  at 
first  spoke  but  little;"  2  but  from  the  press  of  the  day  it  seems  he 
spoke  for  three  hours  and  ten  minutes,3  and  his  effort  shared  with 
that  of  Clay  the  honor  of  being  in  the  opinion  of  an  able  opponent 
the  strongest  against  the  amendment.  That  it  was  essentially 
different  from  that  of  Clay,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe,  from 
the  difference  between  the  men,  and  in  all  probability  it  was  tem- 
perate, philosophical  and  illuminating.  Sergeant  of  Pennsyl- 
vania undoubtedly  made  a  powerful  speech  in  favor  of  the  amend- 
ment ;  but  as  has  been  shown,  he  pushed  the  argument  too  far  for 
the  subsequent  retreat.  However,  without  attempting  to  question 
the  sincerity  of  most  of  the  speakers,  there  was  some  truth  in  the 
assertion  of  the  National  Intelligencer,  that  "  the  balance  of  power 
vibrates,  and  the  feelings  of  our  politicians  vibrate  in  sympathy."  4 
In  perfect  accord  with  what  seems  to  be  the  wisest  speech  now 
obtainable  in  full,  that  of  Mr.  Tucker  of  Virginia,  the  same  paper 
declares:  "It  is  yet  attempted  to  impress  the  public  mind  in  de- 
fiance of  repeated  contradictions,  that  this  is  a  question  which 
involves  an  extension  of  slavery,  that  is  of  the  multiplication  of 
slaves  in  our  country.  Once  for  all  no  such  question  is  presented 
to  the  consideration  of  Congress.  The  question  only  concerns  the 
diffusion  or  the  concentration  of  slaves  now  in  this  country.  There 
is  not  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  a  single  individual  who 
would  raise  his  hand  in  favor  of  authorizing  the  introduction  of 
slaves  into  the  United  States  or,  in  other  words,  in  favor  of  the  ex- 

1  City  Gazette,  March  10,  1820. 

2  "Life  and  Times  of  William  Lowndes,"  p.  207. 

3  City  Gazette,  March  9,  1820.  *  Ibid.,  Feb.  5,  1820. 


THE   RISE   OF   THE   NEGRO   QUESTION  103 

tension  of  slavery."  In  all  fairness  it  must  be  admitted  that  might 
be ;  but  if  there  were  some  outside  of  Congress,  such  would  not  be 
powerless  and  those  who  for  industrial  reasons  were  ready  to  bring 
them  in  from  other  States  and  Territories,  to  States  where  they  were 
already  in  immense  numbers,  might  have  become  as  blind  to  the 
evil  of  bringing  them  in  from  outside  as  they  were  to  this  very 
concentration.  But  after  all  said,  that  it  was  in  the  main  the  ques- 
tion of  political  power  which  agitated  the  North,  subsequent  events 
seem  to  have  indicated  beyond  any  reasonable  doubt,  however 
the  representatives  may  have  failed  to  realize  it.  The  peoples  of 
the  Northern  States  had,  when  it  was  to  their  interest  to  do  so, 
entered  into  the  most  intimate  relations  with  peoples  in  whose 
territories  this  " great  evil"  existed  and  recognized  it.  Nay,  more, 
while  praying  for  deliverance,  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Sergeant, 
from  "this  staining  sin,"  industriously  occupied  themselves  with 
framing  a  protective  tariff  which  should  enable  them  to  reap  their 
full  share  or  more  of  the  produce,  which  the  labor  of  "these  un- 
fortunates" brought  into  existence.  From  such  lips  the  warning 
against  "what  cupidity  may  win  or  necessity  extort"  1  and  exhor- 
tations against  "the  sordid  appetite"2  must  have  been  hard  to 
bear  with  patience.  The  very  subsidence  of  this  intense  feeling 
was  contemporaneous  with  the  march  of  progressive  tariffs,  nor 
did  it  again  flame  out,  with  a  dangerous  blaze,  until  by  nullifica- 
tion the  tariff  was  scotched. 

It  is  a  tribute  to  the  far-reaching  influence  of  South  Carolina's 
greatest  son,  that  throughout  all  this  contention  he  could  preserve 
the  respect  and  affection  of  all  members.  A  curious  little  parenthet- 
ical clause  in  the  reports  of  congressional  proceedings  indicates 
the  correctness  of  the  estimate  of  the  Pennsylvania  representative 
above  mentioned  with  regard  to  him :  "  On  motion  of  Mr.  Lowndes 
(who  by  usage  has  the  floor)  3  the  committee  then  rose."     He  had 

1  Niles's  Register,  Vol.  18,  p.  384.  2  Ibid.,  Vol.  18,  p.  384. 

3  City  Gazette,  Feb.  25,  1820. 


104  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

opposed  the  amendment  in  which  the  Northern  and  Western 
members  were  so  interested,  and  he  likewise  opposed  the  increased 
tariff  they  favored ;  yet  the  bare  suggestion  from  him,  that  Camp- 
bell of  Ohio  should  postpone  the  bringing  forward  of  some  meas- 
ure he  was  interested  in,  provoked  from  the  latter  the  reply  that 
it  was  "  difficult  to  refuse  the  suggestion  of  one  whose  comity  was 
so  well  established." 

It  seems  to  have  been  the  impression  that  his  defeat,  for  the  only 
office  he  ever  desired,1  was  due  to  sectional  feeling  generated  by  the 
Missouri  debate.  And  from  one  of  his  letters  it  would  look  as 
if  he  thought  so  himself;  but  a  careful  examination  of  the  vote 
for  Speaker  in  November,  1820,  is  convincing  that  this  is  a  mistake. 
It  was  the  vote  which  clung  to  Smith  of  Maryland  through  the 
twenty-three  ballots,  ranging  from  7  to  53,  which  prevented  the 
election  of  Lowndes,  although  on  the  seventeenth  ballot,  one  more 
vote  for  Lowndes  would  have  made  him  Speaker.  From  a  com- 
munication to  the  Baltimore  Patriot  it  would  seem  that  the  friends 
of  Mr.  Lowndes  were  charged  with  treating  Mr.  Smith  unfairly; 
but  in  the  opinion  of  the  Baltimore  Telegraph,2  Mr.  Smith's  course 
in  the  contest  failed  to  meet  with  the  approval  of  many  of  his  own 
people.  From  the  first  to  the  fifth  ballot,  the  vote  for  Lowndes 
rose  from  34  to  63,  the  vote  for  Smith  dropping  from  27  to  8  on  the 
fourth,  Lowndes  leading  all  competitors,  Sergeant  and  Nelson  hav- 
ing both  dropped  out.  After  this  ballot  Taylor  passed  Lowndes, 
and  on  the  second  day's  balloting  Lowndes  dropped  to  23,  while 
Smith  rose  to  53;  but  as  soon  as  Lowndes  dropped  to  32,  Smith 
rising  to  50,  Sergeant  came  out  again  and  in  two  ballots  Smith 
and  Taylor  both  dropped,  while  Lowndes  and  Sergeant  rose.  On 
the  fifteenth  ballot  all  dropped  save  Lowndes,  who  rose  to.  55; 
but  on  the  sixteenth,  although  he  gained  13  votes  and  Smith  and 

1  "Life  and  Times  of  William  Lowndes,"  p.  208. 

2  City  Gazette,  Nov.  29,  1820. 


THE   RISE   OF   THE   NEGRO   QUESTION  105 

Sergeant's  votes  fell,  Taylor  gained  the  exact  number  Smith  lost. 
On  the  seventeenth  ballot,  Lowndes  gained  4  votes,  lacking 
one  of  the  requisite  number,  Smith  losing  6,  and  Sergeant  13, 
Taylor  gaining  14.  It  is  pretty  evident  that  Smith's  votes  swung 
over  to  Taylor,  as  soon  as  Lowndes  neared  the  requisite  number, 
and  at  the  close  of  the  second  day  Little  of  Maryland  moved  that 
the  lowest  candidate  should  be  dropped.  The  Clerk  of  the  House, 
against  the  vehement  protest  of  Randolph,  ruled  on  the  point, 
and  on  the  third  day,  on  the  third  ballot,  as  soon  as  Lowndes's 
vote  began  to  drop  and  Smith's  to  rise,  Taylor  was  elected.1 

Taylor  was  not  a  strong  man,  and  the  next  year  was  defeated 
by  P.  P.  Barbour  of  Virginia;  but  he  was  estimated  above  Smith, 
whose  strength  consisted  in  what  he  drew  from  the  abortive  caucus 
he  had  endeavored  to  handle  for  Crawford.  Not  only  Lowndes  as 
usual,  but  so  many  others,  had  abstained  that  the  caucus  only  met 
to  decide  it  was  inexpedient  to  meet,  and  President  Monroe's 
renomination  had  followed. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  Baldwin  bill  for  raising  the 
duties  on  imports  had  passed  the  House,  and  as  a  hysterical  paper 
in  Lexington,  Kentucky,  had  declared,  been  "murdered  in  th( 
Senate  by  one  vote."  A  campaign  in  its  favor  had  been  at  one 
announced  by  Niles's  Register,  which  asserted  that  if  Congress  w* 
not  compelled  at  their  next  session  to  do  something,  "  the  Congress 
which  shall  be  chosen  after  the  next  census  will."  2  The  Missoui 
Compromise  had  therefore  brought  about  an  abatement  of  the  feel- 
ing with  regard  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  which  was  thereby 
blocked.  For  twelve  years,  through  successive  tariffs,  the  South 
was  in  the  most  businesslike  way  exploited,  and  then  with  legis- 
lation to  repeal  the  tariff  law,  the  sentiment  against  slavery  sprang 
up  again  as  an  active  force. 

1  Ibid.,  Nov.  2i,  1820,  to  Nov.  23,  1820. 
3  Niles's  Register,  Vol.  18,  p.  240. 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE   CHARLESTON   MEMORIAL   AGAINST   THE   TARIFF 

Outside  of  Congress,  the  effort  to  increase  the  duties  seems  to 
have  aroused  more  anxiety  than  the  determination  to  restrict  the 
extension  of  slavery.  Throughout  the  South,  and  also  in  Massa- 
chusetts, meetings  were  called  in  opposition.  At  a  meeting  called 
in  the  fall  of  1820  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  the  following 
committee  was  selected  to  draft  a  memorial  to  Congress  against 
any  increase  of  protective  duties:  Stephen  Elliott,  Honorable 
John  S.  Richardson,  Keating  Simons,  Thomas  Lee,  Colonel  R. 
Y.  Hayne,  John  Stoney,  Daniel  Alexander,  Colonel  John  Johnson 
and  Duke  Goodman.1  The  committee  was  an  able  one;  but  on 
such  occasions  the  bulk  of  the  work  usually  falls  to  a  few,  the  most 
able  or  industrious.  Stephen  Elliott  was  the  chairman,  and  of  his 
wide  and  varied  attainments  mention  has  already  been  made ;  but 
the  young  Attorney-General  of  the  State,  now  in  his  twenty-ninth 
year,  had  also  become  a  recognized  force  in  the  politics  of  the  city 
and  State.  In  the  Legislature  he  had  promptly  taken  and  held 
during  his  short  career  a  commanding  position,  until  he  passed 
from  the  Speakership  to  the  position  he  now  held  as  the  head  of  the 
bar  of  South  Carolina.  His  clearness  of  presentation  was  so  well 
recognized  that  we  are  told  "the  most  experienced  lawyers  at  the 
bar,  when  counsel  with  him,  usually  pressed  on  him  this  part  of  their 
common  duty."  2  His  fairness  and  temperance  of  utterance  is  also 
alluded  to  as  a  marked  characteristic,  and  like  William  Lowndes, 

1  City  Gazette,  Sept.  16,  1820.  2  O'Neall's  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  2,  p.  23. 

106 


THE   CHARLESTON   MEMORIAL   AGAINST   THE   TARIFF      107 

for  whom  he  had  a  great  admiration,  he  was  more  interested  in 
performing  the  duty  than  securing  the  praise.  Unlike  Lowndes, 
however,  he  had  been  forced  at  such  an  early  age  to  provide  for 
himself,  that  he  had  been  denied  that  scholarly  finish  afforded 
by  a  collegiate  course,  and  his  manner  of  presenting  the  ideas  which 
most  profoundly  impressed  him  was  by  phrases,  which  seemed  to 
develop,  in  a  gradual  progression,  with  every  recurrence  to  the 
subject.  His  style  at  this  period  must  to  a  certain  extent,  however, 
have  been  formed,  the  exuberance  of  youth  and  tendency  to 
quotation  restrained  by  experience  and  reliance  ,  upon  his  own 
phraseology.  He  was,  therefore,  well  equipped  to  draft  the  memo- 
rial. There  is  a  certain  resemblance  to  his  splendid  speech  on  the 
same  subject  in  the  United  States  Senate  in  1824,  although  it  falls 
below  it  in  argumentative  force  and  beauty  of  diction.  It  bears 
the  stamp  of  the  thought  to  which  Judge  Nott  had  alluded  as  hav- 
ing been  pressed  upon  the  consideration  of  the  court  in  Bulow  and 
Potter  vs.  The  City  Council  by  Hayne  or  Drayton,  the  latter  of 
whom  was  not  of  the  committee.  Lastly,  considered  hyper- 
critically,  there  is  an  occasional  paucity  of  words  which  Elliott's 
written  discourse  is  free  from  and  the  one  weak  argument  in 
Hayne's  great  speech  against  Clay  in  1832  is  here  also.  All 
these  considerations  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  Hayne  was  quite 
instrumental  in  framing  it ;  yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  a  pub- 
lic speech  in  1831  he  gives  Stephen  Elliott,  who  had  just  died, 
the  credit  of  the  composition  of  it. 

Again,  although  through  all  this  period  the  correspondence  of 
Calhoun  contains  not  one  word  on  the  tariff,  and  apart  from  this 
Hayne  from  the  end  of  18 18,  when  his  career  in  the  legislature 
ended,  had  less  opportunity  to  distinguish  himself  than  many  of 
the  brilliant  speakers  of  that  body;  yet  we  find  in  July,  1822,  that 
Calhoun,  in  writing  to  John  Ewing  Calhoun  concerning  the  ex- 
piration  of  the   term   of   Senator  William   Smith,    unreservedly 


108  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

declares:  "Hayne  is  the  man  that  ought  to  be  elected.  He  has 
talents  and  eloquence,  and  will  honor  the  State."  *  Hayne  there- 
fore had  at  this  period  impressed  himself  upon  the  Secretary  of 
War,  who,  removed  from  the  State,  was  less  intimately  in  touch 
with  exhibitions  of  talent,  local  in  their  nature,  and  by  what  with 
more  likelihood  than  this  memorial  to  Congress?  Throughout 
his  public  addresses  we  find  Hayne  always  delighting  to  hold  up 
to  honor  and  remembrance  the  work  of  others,  but  never  any  allu- 
sion to  his  own  past  work.  Even,  therefore,  if  he  had  had  much 
to  do  with  the  framing  of  the  memorial,  the  fact  that  the  work  was 
passed  upon  and  accepted,  added  to  or  revised  by  the  chairman, 
would  have  led  him  to  extend  the  credit  of  it  to  him,  especially  at 
a  period  so  soon  after  Elliott's  death.  But  whether  the  work 
is  to  be  credited  entirely  to  Stephen  Elliott,  or  not  unnaturally 
partly  at  least  to  Hayne,  it  is  worthy  of  consideration  as  the  expres- 
sion of  South  Carolina  in  this  year  1820. 

The  memorial  opens  as  follows:  "The  citizens  of  Charleston 
have  seen  with  deep  regret  the  efforts  which  were  made  at  the  last 
session  of  Congress  to  impose  a  high  rate  of  duties  on  all  manu- 
factured articles  imported  into  the  United  States ;  efforts  made  for 
the  express  and  avowed  purpose  of  creating,  encouraging  and 
supporting  in  this  country  great  manufacturing  establishments; 
of  modifying  and  curtailing  extensively  our  mercantile  intercourse 
with  foreign  nations  and  forcing  from  their  present  employment 
much  of  the  labor  and  capital  of  our  fellow-citizens.  As  there  is 
much  cause  to  apprehend  that  this  measure  will  again  be  presented 
to  the  consideration  of  Congress,  your  memorialists  beg  leave  to 
state  the  reasons  which  have  led  them  to  view  the  system  as  one 
unfavorable  to  the  general  interest  of  the  United  States;  as  one 
likely  to  prove  partial  in  its  operation,  injurious  in  its  effects, 
uncertain  in  its  results,  and  which  departs  equally  from  the  spirit 

1  "  Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  204. 


THE   CHARLESTON   MEMORIAL   AGAINST  THE  TARIFF     109 

of  our  Constitution  and  the  best -established  principles  of  national 
economy.  It  is  a  position  almost  too  self-evident  for  controversy, 
that  in  every  free  or  well-regulated  government,  labor  and  capital 
should  be  permitted  to  seek  and  find  their  own  employment.  To 
the  sagacity  of  individuals  this  trust  may  be  safely  committed. 
Government  can  never  regulate  to  advantage  the  employment  of 
capital  because  success  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth  in  every  depart- 
ment of  life  depends  on  local  circumstances;  on  minute  details; 
on  personal  exertions  which  cannot  be  regulated ;  on  causes  which 
escape  those  general  views,  which  alone  a  government  can  take  of 
the  transactions  of  its  citizens.  It  is  sufficient  that  a  government 
take  care  that  the  employment  of  each  individual  shall  inflict  on 
others  or  on  the  community  at  large  no  injury,  and  that  each  shall 
receive  equal  and  uniform  protection.  All  interference  beyond 
this  is  useless  and  pernicious." 

Passing  on  to  the  main  point,  the  case  for  a  tariff  for  revenue 
is  put  in  terse  legal  phrase,  as  it  is  put  in  the  great  debate  with 
Clay  twelve  years  later,  a  presentment  difficult  to  improve.  "  Every 
duty  on  imported  commodities  operates  as  a  tax  on  the  consumer. 
When  these  taxes  are  imposed  only  to  supply  the  necessary  wants 
of  the  government,  they  are  cheerfully  paid;  when  imposed  to 
enrich  individuals,  we  should  surely  consider  well  on  what  grounds 
the  claims  of  such  individuals  are  advanced,  we  should  inquire 
carefully  what  reciprocal  benefits  the  public  will  receive."  It  is 
freely  admitted  that  "domestic  manufactures  make  us  independent 
of  foreign  nations" ;  but  it  is  submitted,  if  this  is  the  real  reason 
for  them,  it  would  equally  apply  to  the  hothouse  forcing  of  the 
culture  of  sugar,  coffee,  tea,  pepper  and  other  products  of  the 
tropical  countries  in  the  South  by  governmental  aid.  Combat- 
ing this  argument  for  independence,  the  point  is  pushed  too  far, 
the  case  overstated  and  weakened  in  the  opening:  "If  every 
nation  is  dependent  that  is  obliged  to  purchase  the  products  or 


no  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

manufactures  of  other  climates  or  countries,  every  individual  must 
be  in  the  same  degree  dependent  who  has  to  purchase  the  products 
of  the  labor  of  other  men.  There  is  no  distinction  in  the  argument. 
There  is  no  pause  until  we  arrive  at  that  state  where  each  individual 
shall  produce  for  himself  every  article  which  he  cannot  raise  or 
fabricate.  This  will  carry  us  back  to  the  condition  in  which  the 
semi-barbarous  people  of  Europe  existed  during  the  pressure  of 
the  feudal  system,  when  almost  all  intercourse  between  individu- 
als and  nations  was  interdicted;  when  nothing  was  interchanged 
but  injuries,  nothing  remembered  but  oppression.  How  much 
more  simple  and  wise  is  it  for  each  nation  to  raise  or  manufacture 
those  articles  which  are  most  congenial  to  its  soil  and  the  habits 
of  its  people  and  exchange  its  superfluous  productions  for  the 
productions  of  other  climates  and  other  conditions  of  society  — 
to  perpetuate  if  possible  amicable  relations  with  all  countries 
by  the  foremost  of  all  ties,  reciprocal  advantages,  remembering 
always  that  in  proportion  as  the  interchange  is  free  and  unrestricted 
will  be  the  mutual  benefit  it  will  confer."  1 

With  further  elaborations,  which  space  does  not  permit,  an  aspect 
of  the  case  is  presented  which  in  the  light  of  the  subsequent  history 
of  the  tariff  might  be  fairly  called  prophetic :  "  The  very  magnitude 
of  the  evil  prevents  a  remedy.  The  amount  of  capital  and  the 
number  of  people  engaged  in  an  unprofitable  employment  may 
render  it  cruel  if  not  impracticable  to  withdraw  further  from  it 
that  countenance  and  support  by  which  it  was  first  encouraged 
and  the  influence  which  so  strong  an  interest  and  one  so  easily 
combined  can  exert  over  any  government,  should  render  us  very 
cautious  how  we  render  that  a  claim,  which  at  first  may  be  regarded 
as  a  favor.  It  is  in  the  present  instance  to  the  extraordinary  com- 
bination of  interest  and  exertions  among  a  class  of  citizens  whose 
pursuits  are  very  distinct  and  whose  title  or  pretensions  are  widely 

1  City  Gazette,  Sept.  16,  1820. 


THE   CHARLESTON   MEMORIAL   AGAINST   THE   TARIFF     in 

different;  it  is  to  this  demand  for  indiscriminate  encouragement 
that  we  particularly  object.  It  is  this  combined  effort  to  force 
our  government  from  its  position  that  we  view  with  apprehension 
and  alarm.  And  when  we  perceive  the  difficulty  of  resisting 
now  the  applications  of  this  united  body  of  manufacturers,  evei 
when  advancing  new  and,  as  we  think,  unreasonable  claims,  what 
administration  would  ever  have  the  power  or  the  resolution  ol 
withdrawing  from  them  hereafter  any  privileges  which  may  havJ 
once  been  improvidently  granted?"  * 

Strongly  as  the  above  is  put,  it  must  in  fairness  be  admitted 
that  the  memorial  discloses  an  incredulity  with  regard  to  the  growth 
of  manufactures  which  time  has  demonstrated  erroneous,  not 
only  in  the  Union,  but  in  the  State  of  South  Carolina;  yet  while 
this  attracts  attention,  we  note  the  warning  against  "every  system 
of  restriction,  of  monopoly  and  particular  privileges."  The  Corn 
Laws  of  Great  Britain  are  also  discussed  with  an  accuracy  of 
knowledge  and  soundness  of  reasoning  later  amply  vindicated 
by  the  difficulties  of  that  nation. 

The  tone  of  the  paper  throughout  is  temperate,  especially  so 
when  we  recollect  the  stormy  debate  in  Congress  of  that  year. 
"We  regret  that  we  are  compelled  to  advert  to  local  or  sectional 
advantages  or  view  our  own  interests  as  distinct  from  those  of  any 
other  portion  of  our  fellow-citizens ;  but  the  circumstances  which 
have  been  latterly  forced  upon  our  attention  oblige  us  to  view 
this  question  in  relation  to  our  own  immediate  interests.  ...  To 
manufactures  we  have  no  hostility,  we  would  wish  to  see  them 
arise,  flourish  and  attain  a  vigorous  and  permanent  maturity; 
but  we  wish  to  see  this  advance  as  our  wants,  our  means  and  the 
state  of  our  society  shall  be  adapted  to  their  establishment." 

The  resolutions  appended  to  the  memorial  provided  for  its  pres- 
entation in  Congress  by  Charles  Pinckney  and  active  propaganda 

1  Ibid.,  Sept.  16,  1820. 


112  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

of  the  sentiments  contained  therein  through  the  press  and,  if 
necessary,  arrangements  for  a  movement  looking  to  the  calling 
of  a  convention  of  "delegates  from  other  parts  of  the  Union  on 
the  subject  of  the  tariff." 

From  the  above  it  will  appear  that  Professor  Woodrow  Wilson 
is  not  altogether  correct  in  asserting  with  regard  to  South  Carolina 
that  "the  Act  of  1816  had  had  little  importance  for  her."  l  His 
presentation  of  the  reasons  why  "South  Carolina  was  entitled  to 
speak  for  her  sister  states,"  viz.,  "her  exports  in  1829  were  valued 
at  $8,175,586,  only  Louisiana  in  the  South  and  New  York  and 
Massachusetts  in  the  North  showed  a  larger  total,"  2  is  strong  as 
far  as  it  goes ;  but  had  he  looked  closer,  he  would  have  found  that 
the  value  of  the  exports  of  South  Carolina  for  the  year  ending  Sep- 
tember 30,  1816,  amounting  to  $10,849,409,  were  in  excess  of  both 
Louisiana  and  Massachusetts,  and  second  only  to  New  York.3 
Still  that  tariff  she  would  not  have  questioned,  probably  agreeing 
with  Lowndes,  that  there  was  "some  protection  due  to  infant 
industries,  and  that  the  question  was,  'What  measure  of  protec- 
tion do  they  require?'"  4  But  the  claim  set  up  in  the  memorial, 
"that  for  the  last  two  years  the  business  of  the  State  had  been 
affected, " 5  would  seem  to  establish  that,  pari  passu  with  the  collect- 
ing of  the  duties  of  the  tariff  of  1816  came  a  certain  business 
depression,  and  Lowndes,  who  had  brought  Clay  and  Webster 
together  to  enact  that  tariff,6  opposed  the  Baldwin  bill  of  1820 
on  the  ground  that  the  increased  duties  were  not  necessary,  which 
claim  seemed  fully  established  by  the  condition  of  the  manufac- 
turing interests  as  they  were  found  to  be  in  Philadelphia  the  follow- 

1  Woodrow  Wilson,  "Division  and  Reunion,"  p.  49. 

2  "History  of  the  American  People,"  Vol.  3,  p.  285. 

a  City  Gazette,  Feb.  20,  181 7;  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  quoted  by  City  Gazette, 
April  17,  1820. 

4  "Life  and  Times  of  William  Lowndes,"  p.  153. 

5  City  Gazette,  Sept.  16,  1820.  6  Ibid.,  March  28,  1816. 


THE   CHARLESTON  MEMORIAL  AGAINST  THE   TARIFF     113 

ing  year.1  On  both  questions  which  had  stirred  the  country  so 
deeply  there  was  but  the  small  manifestation  of  feeling,  evinced 
by  the  strict  sectional  vote  by  which  Missouri  was  denied  admission, 
until  she  repealed  the  provision  of  her  Constitution,  prohibiting 
the  entry  of  free  persons  of  color.2  It  seems  scarcely  credible, 
but  is  reported,  that  before  the  year  was  ended  the  Legislature  of 
Massachusetts  was  endeavoring  to  find  some  way  of  not  only  pre- 
venting any  further  influx  of  such  persons,  but  relief  from  such 
as  were  in  that  State. 

1  Ibid.,  July  18,  1821.  3  "Life  and  Times  of  William  Lowndes,"  p.  212. 


CHAPTER   X 

A  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  TONE  OF  PUBLIC  OPINION  AND  INTEREST 
IN  INDUSTRIAL  ENTERPRISE,  NORTH  AND  SOUTH,  IN  1821 

The  proprietor  of  the  City  Gazette  in  the  year  182 1  obtained 
the  services  of  a  very  talented  gentleman  as„editor,  a  scholar  and 
something  of  a  wit,  capable  of  holding  his  own  in  any  ordinary 
controversy,  and  indulging  a  little  more  in  editorial  comment 
than  the  spare  amount  of  that  time.  In  July  of  that  year  we 
find  the  following:  "The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  have 
lately  been  making  some  inquiries  into  the  character  and  conduct 
of  that  portion  of  their  population  called  persons  of  color.  A 
committee  was  appointed  to  report  upon  the  expediency  of  amend- 
ing the  laws  of  the  commonwealth  concerning  the  admission  into 
and  residence  in  this  State  of  negroes  and  mulattoes."  Then 
follows  what  purports  to  be  a  portion  of  the  report :  "  Your  com- 
mittee do  not  think  it  necessary  to  make  particular  mention  of 
the  evils  which  will  accompany  this  description  of  population. 
Those  which  are  most  apparent  are :  — 

"  1.  Increasing  the  number  of  paupers  and  convicts. 

"  2.  Collecting  in  the  large  towns  an  indolent  and  disorderly  and 
corrupt  population. 

"3.  Substituting  themselves  in  many  labors  and  occupations 
which  in  the  end  it  would  be  more  advantageous  to  have  performed 
by  the  white  and  native  population  of  the  State. 

"Your  committee  in  finishing  this  part  of  the  report  think  it  due 
to  the  subject  to  state  that  the  good  order  and  tranquillity  of  the 
towns  has  of  late  years  been  often  and  much  disturbed  by  violent 

114 


PUBLIC   OPINION   AND   INDUSTRIAL   ENTERPRISE      115 

riots  at  that  part  of  the  town  where  persons  of  color  collect  in 
great  numbers.  Your  committee  are  fully  persuaded  of  the  im- 
portance of  this  subject  and  of  the  great  necessity  of  adopting 
such  laws  in  this  commonwealth  as,  without  departing  in  the 
least  degree  from  the  respect  for  humanity  and  the  just  rights  of 
all  classes  of  men  by  which  this  commonwealth  has  been  long  and 
greatly  distinguished,  shall  at  the  same  time  protect  the  State 
from  the  burden  of  an  expensive  and  injurious  population,  etc."  * 
"What  kind  of  bill,"  inquires  Editor  Harby,  "by  which  the  State 
of  Massachusetts  is  to  be  disburdened  of  this  description  of  popu- 
lation, without  infringement  on  the  just  rights  of  all  classes,  we 
confess  our  inability  to  see;"  but  he  continues:  "These  remarks 
are  made  in  a  spirit  of  good  humor;  for  since  the  admission  of 
Missouri  into  the  Union  and  the  handsome  conduct  of  her  legis- 
lature, in  accepting  the  condition,  we  fondly  anticipate  no  dis- 
solution of  our  national  alliance." 

The  same  year  which  saw  this  extraordinary  report,  so  utterly 
inconsistent  with  the  terms  imposed  upon  Missouri,  saw  the  re- 
spective attempts  at  nullification  in  Ohio  and  Virginia,  not  pro- 
ceeding as  far  as  that  dangerous  one  in  Massachusetts  in  181 1, 
but  familiarizing  the  minds  of  all  with  the  possibilities  of  such 
procedure.  In  the  Ohio  case  the  editor  of  the  Gazette  contents 
himself  with  an  account,  and  that  incident  is  chiefly  interesting 
to  us  as  illustrating  the  plausibility  of  Judge  Nott's  dissenting 
opinion  in  Bulow  and  Potter  vs.  The  City  Council  in  1818.  As 
stated  by  the  City  Gazette,  the  Ohio  case  was  this :  "  The  Federal 
Government  (by  power  delegated  we  believe  to  the  Directors) 
instituted  a  branch  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  in  Ohio.  The 
Legislature,  fearing  the  institution  injurious  to  the  interests  of  the 
State  Banks  (or  if  you  please  the  citizens),  passed  a  law  laying 
a  tax  of  $100,000  on  the   Branch   Bank  —  that   is,  an  act  by 

1  City  Gazette,  July  27,  1821. 


Il6  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

which  they  would  exclude  the  operations  of  an  institution 
created  by  the  Federal  Government.  Accordingly,  an  officer 
of  the  State  did  walk  into  the  Branch  Bank  and  did  forcibly 
take  away  from  the  vaults  thereof  the  above  named  sum  of  $100,000 
and  did  lodge  the  same  in  the  treasury  of  the  State,  where  it  remains 
to-day."  l  It  is  true  that  an  appeal  was  made  in  this  case  to  the 
Supreme  Court ;  but  it  was  not  immediately  disposed  of,  and  the 
manner  of  the  proceeding  on  the  part  of  the  State  authorities  was 
certainly  not  one  conducive  to  great  respect  for  the  Federal  author- 
ity. If  unaccompanied  by  overt  act,  in  expression  the  Virginia 
case  went  farther.  A  bill  was  proposed  by  the  Richmond  Enquirer, 
threatening  with  very  severe  penalties  "any  person  who  should 
enforce  within  the  commonwealth  any  judgments  of  the  Supreme 
Court  or  any  other  foreign  tribunal  which  reviews  a  judgment 
of  the  courts  of  this  commonwealth,  or  who  shall  enforce  within 
this  commonwealth  any  act  or  pretended  act  of  the  Legislature 
of  the  District  of  Columbia,  contravening  any  of  the  statutes  of 
this  commonwealth."  2 

This  bill  Editor  Harby  attacks  fiercely,  although  he  incidentally 
recognizes  secession  in  the  declaration  that  such  an  act  would 
be  ineffectual,  unless  Virginia  resumed  the  powers,  which,  as  a 
State,  she  had  expressly  granted  to  the  Federal  government; 
and  he  roundly  rebukes  the  paper  for  its  belittling  reference  to 
Congress  in  the  following  patriotic  outburst:  "The  Richmond 
Enquirer  impudently  denominates  the  greatest  government  on 
God's  earth,  the  government  of  the  United  States,  the  sacred 
deposit  of  the  Will,  and  palladium  of  the  liberties  of  the  people 
of  these  States  —  it  impudently  denominates  this  Amphictyonic 
Council,  this  Mind  of  all  the  citizens,  as  the  Legislature  of  the 
District  of  Columbia." 

From  these  extracts  it  is  patent  that  public  opinion  in  South 

1  City  Gazette,  Aug.  14,  1821.  2  Ibid.,  Nov.  28,  1821. 


PUBLIC   OPINION  AND   INDUSTRIAL   ENTERPRISE     117 

Carolina  was  not  only  for  the  Union  and  opposed  to  anything 
which  could  threaten  it,  but  entertained  a  reverence  for  it  beyond 
that  expressed  in  Ohio  and  Virginia.  The  views 'of  Mr.  Harby 
are  the  views  of  Charles  Pinckney  in  1788,  expressed  in  different 
language.  Pinckney  had  asked  "  on  what  depends  the  enjoyment 
of  these  rare  inestimable  privileges?  "  And  answering  his  own 
question  had  declared,  "On  the  firmness,  on  the  power  of  the 
union  to  protect  and  defend  them."  1  And  that  was  but  another 
way  of  pronouncing  the  United  States  government  "the  palladium 
of  the  liberties  of  the  people  of  these  States."  But  passing  from 
this  to  the  contemplation  of  the  condition  of  the  free  colored  persons 
in  South  Carolina  and  the  North,  and  comparing  the  evidences 
of  their  condition  as  indicated  by  the  letter  of  the  Brown  Fellow- 
ship Society  on  the  one  hand,2  and  the  report  of  the  Massachusetts 
committee  of  the  Legislature  on  the  other,  it  is  indisputable  that 
a  higher  and  nobler  type  of  colored  man  was  being  developed  in 
South  Carolina  than  in  Massachusetts,  unless  we  are  willing  to 
believe  that  this  report  of  the  committee  of  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  was  a  libel  upon  her  black  and  colored  inhabitants 
in  1821. 

Despite  the  unfortunate  weakness  which,  for  material  gain, 
broke  down  the  restrictions  against  the  introduction  of  slaves  from 
other  States  and  Territories  to  South  Carolina,  conditions  in  the 
State  showed  a  steadily  advancing  civilization  and  humanitarian 
development  calculated  to  stand  comparison  also  with  any  in  the 
Union.  The  necessity  of  internal  improvements  was  thoroughly 
realized,  if  the  execution  was  defective.  The  talented  South 
Carolinian,  Joel  R.  Poinsett,  who  had  been  mistakenly  placed  at 
the  head  of  the  Board,  was  about  to  give  way  to  the  more  practical 
son  of  her  adoption,  Abraham  Blanding,  and  in  the  line  of  state- 
d/ate Gazette,  June  9,  1788. 
2  Letter  Book  of  Society,  April  17,  181 7.     In  possession  of  J.  H.  Holloway. 


Ii8  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

craft  the  former  was  to  give  a  clearer  illustration  of  his  powers 
of  mind  and  strength  of  character.  But  many  suggestions  were 
appearing,  and  Mills's  Atlas,  just  completed,  was  a  work  for  the 
State  by  one  of  her  sons,  helping  greatly  all  projects  of  improvement; 
yet  nothing  which  came  to  light  in  this  year  of  182 1  has  the  same 
interest  as  a  short  communication,  signed  "H,"  introducing  the 
subject  of  a  railway,  to  be  operated  by  steam  from  Charleston  to 
Augusta  and  Columbia.1  Before  touching  upon  this,  however, 
some  facts  illustrative  of  the  prevailing  trend  of  public  opinion, 
ethically,  may  be  instructive.  Charles  Pinckney,  before  retiring 
from  Congress,  where  he  was  succeeded  by  Joel  R.  Poinsett,  had 
succeeded  in  passing  a  resolution  "  that  a  committee  be  appointed 
to  consider  the  expediency  of  restoring  to  all  the  States  the  juris- 
diction of  all  the  territory  ceded  by  them  for  forts  and  arsenals,  so 
far  as  respects  the  exercise  of  the  State  laws  for  the  prevention  and 
punishment  of  crime  and  recovering  of  debts."  2  This  he  stated 
was  mainly  to  assist  in  the  prevention  of  duels,  illegal  on  South 
Carolina  soil  since  181 2,  through  Dr.  Moser's  act;  but  safely  in- 
dulged in  on  Federal  territory. 

Dr.  Philip  Moser  was  still  in  the  Legislature  and  still  a  genuine 
reformer,  never  weary  of  well-doing.  In  his  message  to  the  Legis- 
lature, Governor  Bennett  had  in  the  fall  of  182 1  put  before  that 
body,  very  forcibly,  some  suggestions,  among  which  we  find  this : 
"In  the  class  of  penal  laws  there  are  no  provisions  which  present 
stronger  and  more  urgent  claims  to  the  justice,  humanity  and 
prompt  attention  of  the  Legislature  than  those  which  prescribe 
the  mode  of  trial  and  punishment  for  crimes  committed  by  slaves 
and  other  negroes.  The  necessity  which  originally  induced  their 
adoption  will  be  found  in  that  feeble  and  immature  state  of  society, 
which  would  justify  a  resort  to  the  most  summary  and  vigorous 
measures  under  the  great  rule  of  self-preservation.   ...     To 

1  City  Gazette,  Nov.  22,  182 1.  2  Ibid.,  Feb.  10,  1820. 


PUBLIC   OPINION   AND   INDUSTRIAL   ENTERPRISE      119 

give  permanency  to  so  gracious  an  interposition  of  your  favor 
will  require  an  earnest  effort  to  anticipate  the  cause  which  origi- 
nally made  necessary  the  present  rigorous  system,  the  most  con- 
spicuous among  others  is  the  continuation  of  that  inhuman  traffic 
for  slaves  with  our  sister  states,  in  which  cupidity  revels  and  human 
misery  is  made  to  swell  the  coffers  of  eager  avarice ;  alike  regard- 
less of  the  calls  of  patriotism  and  the  mild  precepts  of  Christian 
charity.  It  is  reserved  for  the  benevolent  and  prudential  system 
of  legislation  which  has  ever  characterized  the  State,  to  arrest  the 
enormous  evil  and  check  a  vice  whose  rapid  growth  threatens  the 
peace  of  society."  !  That  these  sentiments  were  shared  by  his 
auditors  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  at  this  session  Dr.  Moser  suc- 
ceeded in  effecting  what  he  had  been  striving  for  before;  for 
he  gave  notice  that  he  would  ask  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill  making 
the  punishment  for  the  deliberate  murder  of  any  negro  or  free 
person  of  color,  death  without  benefit  of  clergy.  He  brought  it 
in  and  it  passed.2  But  in  addition  to  this  we  are  informed  that 
so  many  applications  to  emancipate  slaves  were  submitted  at 
this  session,  that  a  general  principle  had  to  be  adopted  to  save 
time.3  Between  this  and  the  next  session  occurred  Denmark 
Vesey's  insurrection,  which  caused  to  arise,  however,  some  doubts 
as  to  the  relaxing  of  laws  for  governing  the  great  numbers  of  the 
inferior  race  then  in  the  State;  but  even  that  was  not  sufficient  to 
effect  any  great  change  in  sentiment.  In  the  year  1821,  undis- 
turbed by  political  broils  and  contests,  oblivious  of  the  dangers 
which  in  the  succeeding  year  the  insurrection  revealed  as  possi- 
bilities, the  people  of  South  Carolina  addressed  themselves  to  the 
consideration  of  schemes  of  betterment,  material  as  well  as  moral, 
and  this  brings  us  back  to  the  suggestion  of  "H." 
In  his  history  of  the  first  locomotive  in  America,  Mr.  Brown 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  7,  1821.  2  Ibid.,  Dec.  11,  1821 ;  Courier,  Dec.  27,  1821. 

3  City  Gazette,  Dec.  1,  182 1. 


120  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

makes  the  assertion:  "It  was  not  until  1820  that  the  first  sug- 
gestion of  using  the  locomotive  (imperfect  as  it  then  was)  in  the 
place  of  horse  power  was  advocated  by  one  Thomas  Gray,  who 
devoted  much  of  his  time  and  money  in  publishing  articles 
and  pamphlets  upon  the  subject."  *  Continuing,  the  author  states 
that  "in  England,  the  Hatton  Colliery  in  Durham  was  altered  into 
a  locomotive  railway,  and  Mr.  Stephenson  appointed  its  chief 
engineer,  the  road  being  opened  for  the  first  time  for  locomotives, 
November  18,  1822."  Passing  to  America,  he  states  that  the  first 
railroad  built  in  the  United  States  was  one  commenced  at  Quincy, 
Massachusetts,  in  1826;  but  that  the  first  roads  started,  which 
concerned  themselves  with  the  problem  of  operation  by  means  of 
steam  locomotives,  were  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company 
and  the  South  Carolina  Railroad,  both  begun  in  1828.2  His  interest- 
ing conclusion,  after  narrating  the  practical  failure  of  the  imported 
English  locomotives  on  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company's 
line,  is  that  "  the  South  Carolina  Railroad  was  accordingly  the  first 
road  in  the  world  built  expressly  for  locomotives  and  also  the 
pioneer  in  having  the  first  locomotive  for  actual  service  in  America 
built  for  their  use ;  also  the  first  to  order  a  locomotive  built  in  their 
midst  and  by  one  of  their  own  native  mechanics  and  citizens."  3 
These  facts,  as  important  as  they  are  to  an  exact  knowledge  of 
the  industrial  history  of  the  United  States,  are  not  generally  known 
and  do  not  appear  in  McMaster's  History,  although  Brown,  by 
whom  they  are  made,  is  cited  as  an  authority.  They  are  sum- 
marized, however,  in  Elson's  "  History  of  the  United  States." 4  From 
the  suggestion  of  "H,"  however,  it  appears;  that  in  1821,  five  years 
prior  to  the  commencement  of  the  three-mile  road  at  Quincy  to  be 
operated  by  horse  power,  evidently,  it  was  suggested  to  construct 

1  "History  of  the  First  Locomotive  in  America,"  p.  54. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  70-71.  3  Ibid.,  p.  151. 

4  Henry  William  Elson,  "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  3,  p.  94. 


PUBLIC   OPINION   AND   INDUSTRIAL   ENTERPRISE      121 

a  railroad  from  Charleston  to  Augusta  and  Columbia,  to  be  operated 
by  the  agency  of  steam;  that  there  was  a  survey  of  the  route  in 
that  year  contemplated;  and  that  the  intelligent  mechanics  of 
Charleston  (two  of  whom,  E.  L.  Miller  i  and  Thomas  Dotterer, 
won  for  their  city  and  State  the  great  distinction  awarded  by  Brown 
in  his  history  of  the  locomotive)  knew  of  and  believed  in  the  claims 
of  their  fellow-craftsman  and  citizen  of  the  United  States,  Oliver 
Evans,  whose  assertion  of  the  possibility  of  such  operation  of 
carriages  by  steam  had  been  stated  in  the  papers  of  Charleston 
at  least  five  years  prior. 

But  to  get  down  to  the  suggestion  of  1821. 

Just  prior  to  the  convening  of  the  South  Carolina  Legislature 
an  article  appeared  in  the  City  Gazette,  introducing  to  the  notice 
of  the  public  a  publication  set  forth  as  a  description  of  "The 
Patent  Railway."     The  introduction  was  as  follows:  — 

"For  the  City  Gazette :  Mr.  Editor:  Having  during  an  excursion  to  the 
Eastward  seen  a  specimen  of  the  patent  railway,  I  was  led  to  believe  that  the 
plan  would  be  useful  in  this  State.  The  inclement  weather  to  which  our 
roads  are  subject  must  defy  all  attempts  to  render  them  good  during  some 
portions  of  the  year.  The  soil  on  which  they  are  made  and  the  materials 
adjacent  to  some  parts  renders  them  liable  to  constant  injury.  The  follow- 
ing publication  may  serve  to  direct  public  attention  to  the  subject.  It  was 
made  in  relation  to  a  more  northern  climate  and  some  of  the  inconveniences 
stated  would  not  be  felt  here.  The  season  for  discussing  the  great  subject  of 
Internal  Improvement  has  arrived  and  this  may  add  to  the  materials. 

Under  this  communication  appeared  the  plan  headed  as  "The 
Patent  Railway,"  from  which  it  appeared  that  it  was  "a  com- 
bination of  iron  and  wood  railway,  which  the  patentee  was 
allowed  to  test  the  merits  of  on  the  wharf  of  the  Honorable  William 
Gray,  where  about  four  hundred  feet  are  laid  down  permanently." 
Then  follows  a  description  at  some  length  of  something  like  a 

1  "History  of  the  First  Locomotive  in  America,"  p.  139. 

2  City  Gazette,  Nov.  22,  182 1. 


122  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

trestle  track,  with  estimates  of  cost  of  constructing  same  from 
Boston  to  Worcester,  and  a  claim  that  the  "plan  is  essentially  differ- 
ent and  much  cheaper  than  any  in  Great  Britain  or  this  country  " ; 
but  an  explanation  that  "there  are  many  things  to  be  attended 
to  in  the  erection  of  the  railways  and  using  the  carriages,  which 
cannot  be  particularly  noticed  in  a  circular ;  at  the  same  time  any 
good  mechanic  can  erect  the  whole  and  it  is  easily  kept  in  repair 
from  its  entire  simplicity.  .  .  .  This  plan  is  so  novel  many  per- 
sons think  they  see  insurmountable  difficulties,  without  under- 
standing all  the  details.  ...  A  Fulton  was  ridiculed  for  his 
attempt  to  apply  steam  to  boats,  and  those  that  pronounce  that 
horses  cannot  walk  on  a  plank  must  allow  that  steam  can  and  has 
been  used  and  considered  as  cheap  as  horses.  ...  In  South 
Carolina,  suppose  a  pair  of  railways  was  laid  from  Charleston  to 
Augusta  and  a  fork  run  to  Columbia,  in  all  150  miles,  cost  $400,000, 
a  load  of  cotton  could  be  carried  in  five  days,  instead  of  thirty, 
by  water.  $2  per  bale  would  be  readily  paid  for  carrying  same, 
and  proportionately  for  rice  and  tobacco,  and  $25  per  ton  for  carry- 
ing goods  up :  there  is  sufficient  transportation  to  make  the  work 
valuable,"  etc. 

Commenting  on  this,  the  editor  only  remarks  that  his  knowl- 
edge of  the  subject  is  limited;  but  he  invites  attention,  observing 
that  the  patentee,  Mr.  Williams,  is  at  that  date  in  Philadelphia, 
but  may  come  to  South  Carolina  during  the  winter. 

Of  course  it  would  be  a  violent  assumption  to  assert  that  "the 
writer,  who  brought  this  patent  railway  to  the  notice  of  the  public 
of  South  Carolina,  was  Hayne;  yet  there  are  many  plausible  reasons 
for  that  determination.  It  was  the  custom  in  Charleston,  in  pub- 
lishing a  communication,  to  assume  a  nom  de  plume,  generally 
some  of  the  well-known  Latin  worthies ;  but  if  not  one  of  these,  at 
least  a  distinctive  word.  Less  often  and  on  grave  occasions  the 
correspondent  signed  his  own  name.     This  last  was  almost  inva- 


PUBLIC   OPINION  AND   INDUSTRIAL   ENTERPRISE      123 

riably  the  practice  of  Hayne,  and  on  one  of  the  few  occasions  in 
which  he  appears  to  have  done  otherwise  in  the  year  immediately 
following  1822,  he  signs  a  card  of  just  about  the  same  length, 
"H. "  *  The  events  which  followed  were  calculated  to  distract  his 
attention  from  such  an  enterprise  for  quite  a  while.  The  nomina- 
tion of  Lowndes  for  the  Presidency  by  the  Legislature  of  South 
Carolina,2  the  insurrection  of  Denmark  Vesey,  during  which  much 
responsibility  was  imposed  upon  Hayne;  and  his  own  nomination 
and  election  to  the  United  States  Senate,  where  for  ten  years  he  led 
the  fight  against  progressive  tariffs,  until  as  Governor  he  held  up 
the  hand  of  Calhoun  and  assisted  him  to  strike  down  the  so-called 
American  system  by  the  Compromise  forced  from  Clay.  Yet 
during  all  this  period  his  speeches  are  permeated  with  the  ideas 
of  the  memorial  of  1820,  ever  developing,  until,  flowering  into 
a  devotion  almost  religious,  he  abandons  every  ambition  for  the 
purpose  of  binding  in  the  indissoluble  bonds  of  interest  and  mutual 
intercourse  the  political  Union  he  recognizes  as  threatened,  and 
seals  his  patriotism  with  his  death.  Whether  Stephen  Elliott  was 
entitled  to  the  entire  credit  for  the  memorial,  or  whether  Hayne 
was  entitled  to  some  share  in  spite  of  his  crediting  it  to  the  chairman 
of  the  committee  of  which  he  was  a  member,  it  is  more  than  likely 
that  the  labor  of  engrossing  it  was  performed  by  some  one  other 
than  the  chairman ;  and  in  furtherance  of  the  view  that  to  some  extent 
a  less  accomplished  scholar  than  Elliott  took  part  in  the  composition, 
—  even  if  only  to  bring  the  heads  together  in  one  whole, —  the  slight 
deficiency  in  words  has  been  noted,  the  tendency  to  repeat  a  certain 
word,  where  one  synonymous  would  help  the  style  and  by  an  other- 
wise rather  striking  coincidence  we  find  in  the  short  space  occupied 
by  this  card  the  identical  repetition  in  the  apparent  inability  to 
substitute  a  word  which  might  prevent  the  repetition  of  the  word 
"  render."     In  the  memorial  we  read :  "  and  the  influence  by  which 

1  City  Gazette,  Nov.  13,  1822.  2  Ibid.,  Dec.  31,  1821. 


124  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

so  strong  an  interest  .  .  .  can  exert  over  any  government,  should 
render  us  very  cautious  how  we  render  that  a  claim,  which  at  first 
may  be  regarded  as  a  favor."  In  the  communication  to  the  City 
Gazette  with  regard  to  the  patent  railway  we  note :  "The  inclement 
weather  to  which  our  roads  are  subject  must  defy  all  attempts  to 
render  them  good  .  .  .  and  the  materials  adjacent  to  some  parts 
renders  them  liable,"  etc.  As  another  possible  indication  it  is 
submitted  that  the  Honorable  William  Gray  in  question  was  the 
great  Boston  merchant  of  that  name  who  supported  the  embargo 
in  spite  of  the  injury  done  to  his  business;  and  that  six  years  later, 
with  both  Senators  Silsbee  and  Webster  representing  Massachusetts 
in  the  United  States  Senate,  yet  the  committee  of  Boston  merchants, 
who  in  that  year  protested  against  the  tariff,  sent  their  memorial 
to  be  presented  by  Senator  Hayne,  among  the  signers  of  which 
memorial  was  a  member  of  the  family  and  close  relative  of  the  Hon- 
orable William  Gray.  By  whomsoever  suggested,  however,  the  card 
of  "  H  "  was  not  absolutely  barren  of  results;  for  a  bill  was  intro- 
duced in  the  Legislature  "for  a  survey  from  Granby  to  Charleston 
on  the  route  delineated  by  Robert  Mills  for  a  canal,  the  preparation 
of  a  list  of  the  owners  of  the  land  through  which  same  would  pass, 
and  an  estimate  of  the  expense  of  the  work."  *  Inasmuch  as  the 
charter  granted  six  years  later  was  for  a  railroad  or  canal,  or  a 
railroad  and  canal,  in  "H,"  we  may  have  the  original  projector  of 
the  Hamburg  Railroad. 

1  Courier,  Dec.  12,  1821. 


CHAPTER  XI 

LOWNDES  NOMINATED  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY  BY  THE  LEGISLATURE 
OF    SOUTH    CAROLINA 

Perhaps  the'most  interesting  act  of  the  Legislature  of  this  year 
182 1  was  the  nomination  of  William  Lowndes  for  the  position  of 
President  of  the  United  States.  There  were  some  doubts  concern- 
ing the  propriety  or  expediency  of  a  nomination,  so  far  in  advance 
of  the  election  for  the  office,  which  would  not  take  place  before  the 
fall  of  1824;  but  once  it  was  decided  by  a  vote  of  58  to  54  to  nomi- 
nate at  that  meeting,1  Lowndes  was  unanimously  chosen.  The 
reason  given  by  the  mover  of  the  resolution  proposing  the  name  of 
Lowndes  for  his  nomination  was,  that  "if  the  principles  of  State 
sovereignty,  pushed  to  their  excess  and  of  unrelenting  economy, 
which  had  been  associated  perspectively  (prospectively)  with  the 
administration  of  Mr.  Crawford,  were  true,  his  selection  would  be 
a  serious  evil  to  the  country."  2  Unfortunately  it  was  not  very 
long  after  this  nomination  that  it  became  apparent  that  Mr. 
Lowndes's  health  was  failing;  but  it  was  thought  even  if  this  was 
the  fact,  and  it  should  preclude  his  candidacy,  John  C.  Calhoun, 
then  Secretary  of  War,  represented  practically  the  same  ideas  and 
would  receive,  with  Lowndes's  withdrawal,  the  unanimous  sup- 
port of  the  State;  for  these  two  great  sons  of  South  Carolina  had 
up  to  this  time  moved  along  the  same  lines,  in  support  of  a  liberal 
interpretation  of  the  powers  of  Federal  government. 

Hayne's  views  as  to  this  nomination  happen  to  have  been  stated 
by  him  shortly  after  in  a  letter  to  Lowndes,  in  which  he  assumes 
this  agreement,  and  the  letter  explains  why  he  could  not  permit 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  31,  1821.  a  Ibid.,  Jan.  9,  1822. 

125 


126  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

the  assertion  made  later  by  his  brother-in-law,  H.  L.  Pinckney, 
that  he  was  a  supporter  of  Mr.  Calhoun  for  the  Presidency,  to 
stand  unchallenged  during  Mr.  Lowndes's  life.  This  letter  is  from 
Charleston,  under  date  January  21,  1822,  and  after  a  preliminary 
request  in  behalf  of  a  Colonel  Waring,  is  devoted  to  the  question  of 
the  nomination.  He  says :  "While  I  have  my  pen  in  hand  writing 
to  you,  I  cannot  refrain  from  adding  a  few  lines  on  the  subject  of 
the  Presidential  Election.  You  know  too  well  my  feelings  towards 
you  to  doubt  the  deep  interest  I  must  take  in  everything  which 
concerns  your  welfare,  and  I  am  sure  it  is  superfluous  to  add  that 
no  event  could  give  me  more  sincere  pleasure  than  to  see  you 
elevated  to  the  station  I  believe  you  so  well  qualified  to  fill  with 
honor,  though  I  must  doubt  the  policy  of  the  proceedings  at  Colum- 
bia (and  had  I  been  acquainted  with  the  design  of  holding  such 
a  meeting  would  have  opposed  it) ;  yet  circumstanced  as  we  now  are, 
I  think  the  course  you  have  resolved  to  pursue  is  one  of  which 
every  candid  and  liberal  man  must  approve  —  and  in  no  possible 
event  can  censure  attach  to  you,  nor  can  you  have  anything  to 
regret  —  Your  friends,  here,  rest  their  hopes  of  final  success  in 
some  measure  on  the  collisions  which  must  arise  among  the  other 
candidates.  We  feel  assured  that  the  temperate  unbiassed  judg- 
ment of  the  well-informed  men  of  the  U.  S.  will  be  favorable  to  your 
claims,  and  this  we  think  will  probably  be  very  soon  displayed. 
Your  friends  will  certainly  not  be  disposed  to  press  your  claims 
should  public  opinion  declare  itself  decidedly  in  favor  of  one  or 
two  of  the  candidates,  but  the  position  you  have  taken  gives  an 
opportunity  to  your  friends  of  ascertaining  the  true  state  of  the 
public  mind.  Time  only  is  wanting  to  give  us  the  information  we 
desire,  and  this  without  any  step  on  your  part.  It  is  certainly  to  be 
regretted  that  any  opposition  should  arise  between  the  claims  of 
Mr.  Calhoun  and  your  own.  The  unanimous  vote  of  South  Caro- 
lina will  certainly  be  given  for  either  should  but  one  be  a  candidate. 


LOWNDES   NOMINATED   FOR  THE   PRESIDENCY       127 

The  sincere  respect  entertained  for  Mr.  Calhoun's  talents,  virtues 
and  services  in  every  part  of  the  State  would  make  us  more  than 
satisfied  with  his  success.  But  it  is  believed  that  your  claims  are 
not  to  be  postponed  to  those  of  any  other  person.  If  it  shall  ap- 
pear in  the  course  of  events  that  you  have  no  fair  prospects  of 
success,  your  friends,  who  are  all  of  them  Mr.  Calhoun's  friends, 
would  certainly  unite  in  his  support.  Taking  into  consideration 
the  proceedings  at  Columbia,  perhaps  this  will  be  the  course  least 
injurious  to  Mr.  C.  Should  it  finally  appear  that  Mr.  C.  will  not 
receive  the  support  his  sanguine  friends  anticipate,  I  presume  he 
would  feel  no  hesitation  in  throwing  his  weight  into  your  scale. 
Time  can  only  decide  the  course  which  ought  to  be  pursued  by 
Mr.  C.  and  yourself.  I  have  thus  written  to  give  you  freely  my 
impressions  on  this  most  interesting  subject.  I  have  been  favored 
by  our  mutual  friend,  Major  Hamilton,  with  a  sight  of  your  letters 
and  therefore  trust  that  the  expression  of  my  sentiments  will  not 
be  unacceptable  to  you.  ...  I  am,  Dear  Sir,  with  great  respect 
and  esteem,"  etc.1  From  Mr.  Lowndes's  letter  to  James  Hamilton, 
Jr.,  of  December  29,  182 1,2  the  chivalrous  attitude  of  the  man  ap- 
pears in  all  its  belief  in  the  greatness  of  a  friend.  It  was  written  after 
consultation  with  Calhoun  and  is  quite  as  much  for  Calhoun  as  for 
himself.  In  fact,  one  would  infer  from  Hamilton's  reply,  January  9, 
1822,3  a  little  more  so,  and  there  seems  to  have  been  a  rather  prompt 
acceptance  of  Calhoun's  oversanguine  description  of  himself, 
as  the  nominee  of  Pennsylvania,  which  ex-Senator  William  Smith 
later  ridiculed  so  mercilessly.  Calhoun  was  a  great  statesman, 
a  man  of  pure  and  high  principles ;  but  he  believed  firmly  in  him- 
self, nor  did  his  greatness  ever  exceed  the  estimate  he  entertained 
of  it.  His  letter  of  a  couple  of  months  later  to  John  Ewing  Calhoun 
is  not  any  other  than  natural,  coming  as  it  does  from  an  ambitious 
and  confident  man,  but  is  in  contrast  to  that  of  his  friend  Lowndes, 

1  Original  in  possession  of  William  Lowndes,  Esq. 

2  "Life  and  Times  of  William  Lowndes,"  p.  226.  3  Ibid.,  p.  228. 


128  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

to  whom  it  alludes:  "The  presidential  election  continues  to  be 
much  spoken  of,  but  does  not  yet  produce  much  political  excite- 
ment. My  friends  think  my  political  prospect  good,  in  fact  better 
than  any  other  who  is  spoken  of.  There  is  no  doubt  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, which  must  go  far  to  decide  the  contest.  I  do  not  think  Mr. 
L.  is  much  spoken  of.  He  has  few  opponents,  but  still  fewer 
ardent  friends.  My  own  opinion  is  that  the  contest  will  be  between 
Adams,  Crawford  and  myself."  *  But  it  must  have  been  apparent 
by  the  spring  of  1822  that  the  most  prominent  of  all  her  sons  in 
Congress  could  no  longer  serve  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  and 
probably  in  May  Mr.  Lowndes  resigned  his  seat.  That  he  was  in 
the  minds  of  some  already  marked  for  death,  is  indicated  by  the 
fact  that  the  City  Gazette,  after  naming  six  candidates,  states  the 
belief  that  in  the  end  the  contest  will  be  confined  to  the  three 
named  in  Mr.  Calhoun's  letter,  to  wit,  Adams,  Crawford  and 
Calhoun.2  Three  days  later,  however,  it  apologizes  for  the  in- 
timation that  Mr.  Lowndes  will  withdraw. 

But  Mr.  Lowndes  and  Mr.  Calhoun  were  not  the  only  two  South 
Carolinians  of  this  date  of  national  prominence.  There  was 
Langdon  Cheves,  who  had  been  elevated  to  the  Speakership  of 
the  United  States  House  of  Representatives  in  1814,  and  later 
having  as  president  "rescued  the  United  States  Bank  from  im- 
pending ruin  in  1819,"  3  and  having  set  it  on  a  firm  financial 
foundation,  was  now  about  to  retire  from  the  presidency  of  that 
institution.  He  was  mentioned  in  Kentucky  in  connection  with 
the  Presidency ; 4  while  the  possibility  of  his  again  representing 
South  Carolina  was  a  subject  of  comment  in  the  State. 

Yet  public  interest  in  such  matters  in  South  Carolina  was  sus- 
pended for  some  months  in  the  spring  and  summer  of  1822,  on 


1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  202.  3  Ibid.,  Oct.  22,  1822. 

3  City  Gazette,  Jan.  14,  1822,  Jan.  16,  1822.         *  Courier,  June  7,  1822. 


LOWNDES   NOMINATED   FOR  THE   PRESIDENCY       129 

account  of  a  matter  of  closer  concern  and  more  absorbing  interest, 
the  threatened  insurrection  of  which  Denmark  Vesey  was  the 
principal  leader.  In  the  measures  taken  to  prevent  an  uprising 
of  the  negroes  and  safeguard  the  homes  of  the  whites,  Hayne  was 
prominent  on  account  of  his  position  in  the  militia.  Prior  to  this 
year,  and  probably  in  the  early  part  of  1820,  he  had  contracted 
his  second  marriage.  His  second  wife  was  Miss  Rebecca  Motte 
Alston,  a  half-sister  of  that  Governor  Alston  who  had  at  such  an 
early  age  recognized  his  ability.  The  lady  was  of  about  his  own  age, 
of  more  than  ordinary  strength  of  character  and  intelligence,  so 
much  so  that  it  was  a  matter  of  jest  in  her  family  whether,  in 
matrimony,  she  could  possibly  arrive  at  that  mutual  adjustment  of 
tastes  and  opinions  so  necessary  to  happiness.  She  made  him  a 
devoted  wife,  and  under  his  affectionate  influence  the  quality  with 
which  she  most  impressed  the  various  individuals  his  varied  public 
duties  threw  into  contact  with  her,  was  amiability.  It  seems  a 
loss  that  none  of  the  letters  which  passed  between  husband  and  wife 
should  be  permitted  to  see  the  light,  for  the  tactful  use  of  such 
does  much  to  add  to  the  charm  of  that  delightful  book,  "The  Life 
and  Times  of  William  Lowndes";  but  the  only  scrap  which  is 
obtainable  is  in  the  shape  of  a  few  lines  addressed  to  a  young  and 
near  relative  of  his  wife,  to  whom  he  sent  some  little  gift  upon  her 
wedding  day,  preserved  by  the  daughter  of  the  recipient,  and 
furnished  with  the  statement  that  she  had  often  heard  her  mother 
speak  of  the  donor's  charm  of  manner :  — 

"Accept,  sweet  girl,  from  one  who  feels 
The  purest  joy  which  marriage  yields, 
This  little  gift  designed  to  say 
How  welcome  is  your  bridal  day. 

"  The  golden  leaf  by  pearls  enshrined, 
Apt  emblem  of  a  heart  refined, 
Whose  sterling  worth  in  graces  dressed 
In  M —  A —  stands  confessed." 


CHAPTER   XII 

DENMARK    VESEY'S    INSURRECTION 

In  the  spring  of  1822  Charleston  and  the  surrounding  coast 
country  were  greatly  disturbed  by  apprehensions  of  a  negro 
insurrection.  According  to  the  United  States  Census  of  1820, 
the  white  population  of  Charleston  had  actually  decreased;  while 
the  black  and  colored  had  increased.  With  a  slight  increase  of 
population,  the  proportion  of  the  inferior  race  were  to  the  superior 
four-sevenths  to  three-sevenths.  What  exactly  was  the  proportion 
in  1822  is  problematical;  but  the  importation  of  slaves  from  other 
States  and  Territories  had  grown  to  such  proportions  as  to  call  for 
comment  in  the  Governor's  message,  December,  182 1,  and  even  so 
conservative  an  individual  as  General  Thomas  Pinckney  realized 
the  great  injury  to  South  Carolina,  and  what  is  more  strikingly 
patriotic,  the  peculiar  hardship  on  the  white  artisan  class ;  and  that 
cheap  negro  labor  was  steadily  undermining  that  class  of  Charles- 
ton's population  which  had  ever  been  stridently  Republican, 
which  had  elevated  to  power  Charles  Pinckney,  John  Geddes, 
Thomas  Bennett,  and  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  and  had  failed  to  support 
his  own  great  brother  because  he  was  a  Federalist.  Taking  into 
consideration  the  suburbs,  he  estimated  that  the  proportion  of 
whites  to  blacks  was  14  to  22,  and  the  numbers  of  the  white 
artisans  growing  less.  This,  with  great  wisdom,  he  considered  an 
injury,  and  set  forth  his  reasons.  But  the  danger  to  be  appre- 
hended from  the  presence  of  this  growing  mass  was  to  be  even 
more  forcibly  illustrated  by  the  attempt  this  year  of  one  Denmark  l 

1  Denmark  (or  Telemaque  Vesey),  a  free  mulatto  worth  $8000  in  property. 
City  Gazette,  Aug.  21,  1822. 

130 


DENMARK  VESEY'S   INSURRECTION  131 

Vesey  to  stir  up  an  insurrection.  Vesey  was  a  free  mulatto 
from  the  West  Indies.  His  principal  lieutenants  were  Peter 
Poyas,  a  trusted  slave,  well  reared  and  occupying  a  respectable 
position,  and  Gullah  Jack,  an  imported  African.  The  insurrection 
was  revealed  by  a  slave  named  George,  belonging  to  the  Wilson 
family,  who  being  a  mechanic  was  allowed  to  work  out,  yielding 
a  portion  of  his  wages  to  his  owner.  A  description  of  this  man, 
and  of  the  night  on  which  the  uprising  was  planned  to  take  place, 
is  here  submitted  by  Mr.  Hasell  Wilson,  for  many  years  chief 
engineer  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  as  late  as  1900  con- 
nected with  it,  who  has  left  an  account  based  on  his  personal  rec- 
ollection.1 

"The  slave  George,"  he  says,  "  was  a  heavily  built  dark  mulatto, 
a  blacksmith,  who  worked  out,  and  according  to  the  custom  ac- 
counted to  his  mistress  only  for  a  portion  of  his  wages.  He 
could  read  and  write,  bore  an  excellent  character  with  blacks  and 
whites  and  was  a  class  leader  in  the  Methodist  Church."  2  As 
Peter  Poyas  had  thrown  in  his  lot  with  the  band,  George  was  ap- 
proached also ;  but  to  George  the  plans  seemed  horrible,  and  he 
exerted  himself  to  defeat  them.  In  counting  on  Peter,  another 
slave,  the  conspirators  were  also  misled.  Pencil,  a  free  person  of 
color,  also  gave  testimony  against  them.  Of  course  the  entire 
scheme  was  based  on  an  incapacity  to  realize  the  true  condition  of 
affairs  in  South  Carolina,  and  must  have  been  absolutely  abortive 
at  the  best;  but  this  did  not  preclude  the  possibility  and  extreme 
probability  of  much  distress  and  anguish  and  frightful  excesses  of 
rapine  and  bloodshed  attending  the  attempt,  which  these  three 
men  prevented;  for  once  warned,  the  community  was  safe.  The 
action  of  the  authorities  was  prompt ;  and,  as  it  was  beginning  to  be 
natural,  the  main  responsibility  was  devolved  upon  Hayne.  On 
Sunday,  June  16,  at  ten  o'clock  at  night,  Captain  Cattle's  Corps 

1  Mss.  in  Charleston  Library.  a  Ibid. 


132  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

of  Hussars,  Captain  Miller's  Light  Infantry,  Captain  Martindale's 
Neck  Rangers,  the  Charleston  Riflemen  and  the  City  Guard  were 
ordered  to  rendezvous  for  guard,  the  whole  organized  as  a  detach- 
ment, under  command  of  Colonel  R.  Y.  Hayne.1  To  the  women 
and  children  the  night  could  have  scarcely  been  a  pleasant  one,  the 
very  vagueness  of  the  matter  imparting  a  mysterious  air  of  horror 
to  the  thought  of  insurrection  and  what  it  might  purport.  Mr.  Wil- 
son in  his  account  records  the  natural  impressions  of  a  child. 
"I  can  never  forget,"  he  writes,  "the  feeling  of  alarm  and  anxiety 
that  pervaded  the  whole  community,  from  the  time  the  danger 
became  known  until  all  risk  appeared  to  be  over.  On  the  night 
appointed  for  the  consummation  of  the  plot,  no  one,  not  even  the 
children,  ventured  to  retire,  and  the  passing  of  the  patrols  on  the 
streets  and  every  slight  noise  excited  attention.  When  morning 
dawned  without  any  alarm  having  been  given,  there  was  a  general 
feeling  of  relief;  but  the  anxiety  and  suspense  were  not  dissipated 
for  some  time." 

Two  courts  were  formed  for  the  trial  of  the  conspirators.  The 
first  court  organized  early  in  July  consisted  of  William  Drayton, 
J.  R.  Pringle,  Robert  J.  Turnbull,  N.  Heyward,  Henry  Deas, 
Thomas  Parker  and  Lionel  Kennedy,2  and  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  or  so  accused,  brought  before  it,  seventy-one  were  found 
guilty,  and  of  these,  thirty-four  condemned  to  death  and  thirty- 
seven  to  transportation  beyond  the  limits  of  the  State,  among 
those  condemned  to  death  being  Denmark  Vesey,  represented  by 
George  Warren  Cross,  Esq.,  as  counsel,  and  also  Peter  Poyas 
and  Gullah  Jack,  the  three  deemed  the  principal  ringleaders. 
This  court  seems  to  have  been  subjected  to  some  criticism  and  its 
protest  brought  a  rejoinder  from  a  distinguished  judge.  There 
were  rumors  that  the  court  was  disposed  to  resign;  but  it  sat 
until  July  31,  when  a  new  court,  consisting  of  Joel  R.  Poinsett, 

1  Account  published  by  City  Corporation.  2  City  Gazette,  July  31,  1822. 


DENMARK   VESEY'S   INSURRECTION  133 

Robert  Y.  Hayne,  Thomas  Rhett  Smith,  Thomas  Roper,  John 
Gordon,  Jacob  Axson  and  Charles  M.  Furman  was  formed,  the  old 
one  having  been  dissolved.1  The  second  court  sat  for  nine  days, 
sentenced  one  prisoner  to  death  and  seven  to  transportation  and 
dismissed  the  remainder  of  the  accused.  Of  those  condemned, 
some  were  very  denunciatory  of  the  leaders,  accusing  them  of  hav- 
ing brought  them  to  their  unhappy  pass ; 2  but  Denmark  Vesey  and 
Peter  Poyas  met  their  death  with  firmness,  refusing  to  make  any 
statement  whatever.  The  execution  of  the  thirty-five  was  desig- 
nated by  the  New  York  Daily  Advertiser,  "A  Bloody  Sacrifice,"3 
which  provoked  the  prompt  retort,  that  exactly  the  same  number 
on  a  similar  accusation  and  investigation  had  been  executed  in 
New  York  some  years  previous,  and  some  of  the  accused  burnt  to 
death.4  To  people  who  believed  that  by  prompt  and  decisive 
measures  a  terrible  danger  had  been  averted,  the  comments  of  the 
New  York  paper  seemed  unreasonable;  yet  the  reply  was  a 
citation  of  facts  rather  than  indulgence  in  rhetoric,  and  when  in 
opposition  to  the  general  criticism  of  the  Northern  press  the 
Boston  Recorder  protested  against  this  criticism  and  asserted  its 
belief  that,  with  scarcely  any  exception,  the  whole  Northern 
population  sympathized  with  the  people  of  Charleston  in  their 
danger  and  deliverance,  the  publication  of  the  article  brought 
forth  a  response  signed  by  "Union,"  in  which  the  writer  declared 
that  intercourse  between  the  sections  was  alone  needed  to  increase 
the  mutual  esteem. 


1  Ibid. 

2  The  confession  of  Jack  Purcell:  "If  it  had  not  been  for  the  cunning  of  that 
old  villain  Vesey,  I  would  not  now  be  in  my  present  position.  ...  He  one  day 
brought  me  a  speech  which  he  told  me  had  been  delivered  by  a  Mr.  King,  on  the 
subject  of  slavery  .  .  .  that  Mr.  King  had  declared  he  would  continue  to  speak, 
write  and  publish  pamphlets  against  slavery  ...  for  that  slavery  was  a  great  dis- 
grace to  the  country."     City  Gazette,  Aug.  ax,  1822. 

3  City  Gazette,  Aug.  14,  1822.  4  Ibid.,  Sept.  27,  1822. 


134  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

If  we  consider  the  effect  upon  the  views  of  the  people  of  South 
Carolina  of  this  alarm,  we  will  find  that  the  Grand  Jury  of  Charles- 
ton reiterated  its  presentment  of  years  previous  in  almost  the  exact 
language  against  "  the  dangerous  and  growing  evil  of  the  frequent 
introduction  of  slaves  from  other  States  into  this  State."  '  While 
the  temper  of  the  Legislature  was  such  that  upon  the  introduction 
of  a  bill  to  prohibit  the  bringing  of  slaves  into  the  State  for  sale, 
barter  or  exchange,  it  mustered  behind  it  52  votes,  with  only  61 
against  it ; 2  and  if  Governor  Bennett  had  only  plucked  up  a  little 
more  courage  and  resolution,  he  might  have  helped  it  through. 
But  Governor  Bennett  was  not  the  same  man  he  was  the  previous 
session.  In  place  of  the  fearless,  trenchant  paper  in  which  he  had 
attempted  to  call  the  attention  of  the  lawmaking  body  to  the 
danger  of  which  the  Charleston  Grand  Jury  still  firmly  spoke, 
his  pessimistic  utterances  were  mournful  and  hopeless  in  the 
extreme.  How  much  the  animadversions  of  his  fellow-citizens 
upon  his  clemency  as  Governor,  how  much  the  realization  of  the 
implication  of  his  own  house  servant  in  the  conspiracy  had  affected 
him,  may  not  be  known;  but  he  seemed  at  the  critical  moment 
to  have  abandoned  the  fight.  Paying  a  high  tribute  to  the  merci- 
fully inclined,  but  resolute,  young  Attorney-General  and  other 
officers,  he  confined  all  his  suggestions  to  matters  concerning  the 
free  colored  persons  of  Charleston,  with  regard  to  whom  he  declared 
that  their  rapid  increase  had  been  the  subject  of  serious  reflection 
and  great  anxiety  to  him,  and  that  he  conceived  this  to  be  due  to 
the  laws  of  contiguous  States,  which  thus  disburdened  themselves 
of  that  portion  of  their  population  upon  South  Carolina,  and, 
oblivious  of  the  declaration,  published  by  apparently  trustworthy 
investigators,  that  in  the  decade  from  181 2  the  blacks  had  in- 
creased in  South  Carolina  in  the  proportion  of  three  to  one  white, 
and  must  be  bringing  in,  with  such  increase,  a. perfect  flood  of  vice 

1  City  Gazette,  Oct.  15,  1822.  3  Courier,  Dec.  25,  1822. 


DENMARK  VESEY'S   INSURRECTION  135 

and  ignorance,  he  throws  up  the  sponge  with  the  declaration: 
"  Slavery  abstractly  considered  would  perhaps  lead  every  mind  to 
the  same  conclusion;  but  the  period  has  long  since  passed  by, 
when  a  correction  might  have  been  applied.  The  treasures  of 
learning,  the  gifts  of  ingenuity  and  the  stores  of  experience  have 
been  exhausted  in  the  fruitless  search  for  a  practical  remedy. 
The  institution  is  established  —  the  evil  is  entailed  and  we  can 
now  do  no  more  than  steadily  to  pursue  that  course  indicated  by 
stern  necessity  and  not  less  imperious  policy."  *  This  was  a  most 
unfortunate  tone  for  the  Governor  to  assume,  as  the  subsequent 
vote,  above  related,  disclosed. 

A  study  of  this  vote  reveals  some  interesting  facts.  The  one 
South  Carolinian  who  had  voted  for  the  Baldwin  bill  in  1820,  and 
who  had  failed  to  return  to  Congress,  voted  against  this  bill  in  the 
South  Carolina  Legislature  for  the  prohibition  of  "  the  introduc- 
tion of  slaves  into  the  State  for  sale,  barter  or  exchange";  but 
what  is  surprising,  so  wise  a  judge  as  John  Belton  O'Neall  later 
proved  himself  to  be,  was  one  of  those  who  were  incapable  of  see- 
ing the  injury  this  great  negro  population  was  inevitably  working 
for  the  State.2  But  that  some  were  wise  enough  to  see  it,  General 
Thomas  Pinckney's  paper  shows;  while  the  vote  of  the  bulk,  if 
not  of  the  entire  Charleston  delegation,3  indicated  the  effect  of 
his  opinion  and  that  of  the  Grand  Jury  of  the  District.  To  under- 
stand thoroughly  this  negro  question,  it  is  necessary  to  divest  our 
minds  of  the  ideas  which  have  become  prevalent  with  the  mere 
passing  out  of  recollection  of  historical  facts  and  the  absolutely 
unreliable  assumptions  of  many  writers,  who  have  judged  the  past 
by  the  opinions  of  their  own  day. 

The  impression  has  been  produced  that  the  attitude  of  the 
Northern  majority  in  Congress  in  181 9,  on  the  Missouri  bill,  was 
one  defensive  of  the  negro,  and  commiserative  of  the  slave.     Doubt- 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  11,  1822.  2  Ibid.,  Dec.  25,  1822.  •  Ibid. 


136  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

less  it  was,  to  some  extent;  but  to  continue  to  believe  that  it  was 
entirely  so,  is  to  fly  in  the  face  of  facts.  The  extraordinary  report 
of  the  Massachusetts  legislative  committee  on  the  free  colored 
persons  of  that  commonwealth  has  been  before  mentioned.  That 
report  was  made  in  18 21 ;  but  it  must  not  be  taken  as  representing 
simply  the  objection  of  one  State  to  this  class,  for,  at  the  end  of 
1822,  mention  is  made  of  the  fact  that  the  State  of  Ohio  had  just 
enacted  a  law  that  no  black  or  mulatto  person  should  be  per- 
mitted to  give  testimony  in  any  case  where  a  white  person  was 
concerned,1  and  yet  we  remember  that  the  entire  court  in  South 
Carolina  in  1807,  in  the  case  of  State  vs.  McDowell,  decided  the 
contrary ;  so  that  it  is  apparent  that  it  was  not,  entirely,  objection 
to  the  slave  owner  moving  in  with  his  slave  and  extending  the  ter- 
ritory, where  the  institution  should  be;  but  it  was  also  a  positive, 
definite,  admitted  objection  to  the  negro's  presence,  whether  bond 
or  free,  that  influenced  the  representatives  from  the  Northern  and 
Western  States,  just  as  it  influences  them  to-day  to  keep  the  negroes 
confined  to  the  South. 

1  Courier,  Nov.  27, 1822.  J 


CHAPTER  XIII 
hayne's  election  to  the  united  states  senate 

For  their  faithful  services  the  two  slaves  George  and  Peter  were 
emancipated  at  a  cost  of  $1000  each,  paid  to  their  owners,  and  in 
addition  it  was  provided  that  both  should  receive  $50  per  annum 
for  life.  Pencil,  the  free  colored  man,  received  $1000  l  and  the 
remission  of  all  taxation  for  life.  Gell,  whose  confession,  as  it 
proceeded,  disclosed  the  fact  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  vicious, 
was,  nevertheless,  in  good  faith,  pardoned,  and  thus  the  insur- 
rection passed  out  of  mind,  and  the  contest  for  the  seat  in  the 
United  States  Senate  held  by  Senator  William  Smith  absorbed 
public  attention  in  South  Carolina. 

This  remarkable  man  was  then,  in  all  probability,  in  his  fifty- 
ninth  year.  Born  in  North  Carolina,  he  had  moved  to  South 
Carolina  and  settled  in  York  District  in  his  youth.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  part  by  Mr.  Alexander,  a  Presbyterian  minister  residing 
at  a  place  in  South  Carolina  called  then  Bullock's  Creek,  and 
Andrew  Jackson  and  William  H.  Crawford  were  both  said  to 
have  been  his  schoolmates.2  In  early  life,  a  hard  drinker,  the 
patient  devotion  of  his  wife  induced  him  to  abandon  the  habit 
altogether,  and  he  prospered,  from  that  time,  until  his  death.  A 
member  of  the  Legislature  and  president  of  the  State  Senate  in 
1806,  he  was  in  1808  raised  to  the  bench  and  eight  years  later 
elected  to  the  United  States  Senate,  where  he  had  succeeded  John 
Taylor,  elected  in  18 10,  when  old  General  Sumter  had  resigned. 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  25,   1822.  2  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  1,  p.  106. 

137 


138  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Senator  Smith  was  not  in  accord  with  the  views  and  policies 
of  Lowndes  and  Calhoun;  but  he  was  a  man  of  great  ability  and 
force  of  character,  a  fair,  fierce,  fearless  fighter,  who  knew  not  what 
the  word  "  compromise  "  meant,  and  a  firm  believer  in  the  strife  of 
factions,  by  which  he  thought  the  people's  rights  were  best  pre- 
served. Being,  like  Sumter,  an  extreme  State  Rights  partisan,  he 
inclined  to  Crawford,  and  doubtless  shared  to  some  extent  or 
sympathized  with  that  "temper  exhibited  by  so  many  members 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  to  prostrate  the  whole  of  our 
establishments, "  x  which  Calhoun  had  a  year  or  so  previously 
alluded  to  in  a  letter  to  Poinsett,  urging  him  to  be  promptly  in  his 
seat,  accordingly.  In  this  year,  1822,  Calhoun  threw  his  influence 
decisively  against  Smith  and  for  Hayne,  and  doubtless  secured  the 
latter's  election  by  the  handsome  vote  he  received.  Whether 
Hayne  could  have  been  elected  without  Calhoun's  assistance  is 
as  much  a  question  as  whether,  with  any  other  candidate,  Smith 
could  have  been  beaten.  Had  Langdon  Cheves  been  a  resident  of 
South  Carolina  at  the  time,  he  possibly  could  have  successfully 
opposed  Smith ;  but  he  had  been  a  non-resident  for  three  years  and 
more. 

Under  date  of  July  1,  1822,  Calhoun  writes  to  John  Ewing 
Calhoun,  urging  him  not  to  decline  an  election  to  the  Legislature, 
pressing  on  him  the  importance  of  attending  and  declaring  that 
"it  will  take  all  the  good  sense  and  moderation  which  can  be 
brought  forward  to  prevent  the  State  from  being  distracted." 
Continuing,  he  writes:  "I  am  glad  to  see  a  disposition  to  leave 
Smith  at  home.  I  do  not  think  he  fairly  represents  the  State.  He 
is  narrow  minded,  and,  I  believe,  wedded  to  the  Georgia  politicians. 
If  reelected,  I  doubt  not  that  he  will  come  out  openly,  which  would 
do  much  mischief.  Hayne  is  the  man  that  ought  to  be  elected. 
He  has  talents  and  eloquence,  and  will  honor  the  State.     It  would 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  190. 


HAYNE'S   ELECTION  TO   THE   SENATE  139 

be  imprudent,  however,  to  utter  these  sentiments  as  coming  from 
me."  » 

If  the  Presidential  succession  had  not  aroused  much  political 
excitement  in  the  spring,  by  the  fall  it  was  bubbling,  and  the  ad- 
herents of  the  various  candidates  were  commencing  to  pass  those 
comments  on  rivals  of  their  favorites  in  which  acerbity  usurps  the 
place  of  wit.  To  an  unfortunate  inquiry  by  a  Crawford  paper 
with  regard  to  what  kind  of  an  administration  "Mr.  Calhoun,  if 
elected  (of  which  there  is  little  danger),  would  give,  whether 
Federal,  Republican  or  mongrel?"2  the  City  Gazette  tartly  re- 
plies, with  an  allusion  to  Secretary  Crawford's  proposal  for  mis- 
cegenation between  whites  and  Indians,  and  refers  its  contemporary 
to  the  Indian  squaws  as  authority  on  mongrelization.  Up  to  this 
time  Crawford  appeared  to  be  the  strongest  of  the  numerous 
candidates,  seven  or  eight  of  whom  were  before  the  public,  and 
upon  South  Carolina's  attitude  concerning  the  Presidency,  the 
senatorial  struggle,  to  some  extent,  turned.  "The  temper  exhib- 
ited by  so  many  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
to  prostrate  the  whole  of  our  establishments,"  to  which  Calhoun 
alluded,  was  evidently  the  Crawford  programme.  Early  in  No- 
vember the  two  candidates  for  the  Senate  must  have  been  named, 
and  soon  after,  a  writer  of  great  ability,  H.  L.  Pinckney,  under  the 
name  of  "Republican,"  deftly  knits  Hayne's  candidacy  to  the 
State's  opposition  to  Crawford's  Presidential  aspirations.  He  fore- 
sees even  then  the  necessity  which  will  arise  for  the  interposition 
of  Congress  in  1824  with  regard  to  the  election,  although  he  makes 
a  slip  in  asserting  "that  the  person  who  will  be  chosen  to  the 
Senate  will  have  a  vote."  3  Passing  on  to  a  review  of  the  Presi- 
dential candidates,  he  observes :  "  Of  these  Jackson,  Calhoun  and 
Lowndes  are  indebted  to  Carolina  for  their  existence  .  .  .  that 
the  military  career  of  Jackson  is  beyond  any  parallel  our  country 

1  Ibid.,  p.  204.  3  City  Gazette,  Oct.  19,  1822.  8  Ibid.,  Nov.  12,  1822. 


140  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

can  offer;  that  the  profound  mind,  unwearied  industry  and  con- 
ciliatory temper  of  Mr.  Lowndes  are  felt  and  acknowledged  by 
all;  while  the  ardent  and  unbending  genius,  lofty  oratory,  com- 
prehensive vision,  practical  wisdom  and  firm  nerve  of  Mr.  Calhoun 
place  him  upon  ground  eminently  conspicuous,  even  among  these 
so  eminently  high  themselves."  But  for  Crawford,  the  writer  has 
no  praise  whatsoever,  and  questions  his  claim  to  any,  promising 
the  public  that  he  intends  to  subject  it  to  a  rigid  investigation. 
An  intimation  that  Hayne  is  favorable  to  Calhoun,  together  with 
the  mistake  before  alluded  to,  brings  a  card  from  Hayne,  beyond 
doubt,  although  such  is  only  signed  "H."  '  Lowndes  had  died  at 
sea,  but  the  fact  was  not  yet  known,  although  it  must  have  been 
very  gravely  doubted  whether  he  would  ever  survive  the  election, 
still  two  years  distant.  The  card  agrees  in  general  with  the  writer 
"  Republican  "  as  to  the  qualities  and  pretensions  of  the  Presiden- 
tial candidates,  but  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  senator  to  be 
elected  will  not  have  any  vote  in  the  Presidential  election  by  Con- 
gress, the  House  of  Representatives  being  alone  authorized  by  the 
Constitution  to  make  the  choice.  The  writer  states,  however, 
that  he  does  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  expressing  any  opinion 
for  or  against  either  of  the  senatorial  candidates,  much  less  any 
decided  opinion  upon  the  general  question  of  the  Presidential 
election.  Two  days  later,  in  the  columns  of  the  Courier  (the 
Federal  paper),  appears:  "To  the  members  of  the  Legislature: 
In  our  national  assembly,  Carolina  has  always  been  well  repre- 
sented. She  has  commanded  the  services  of  the  most  enlightened 
statesmen  in  our  country,  and  she  claims  the  proud  and  enviable 
distinction  of  ranking  among  her  sons  a  Lowndes,  a  Cheves  and  a 
Calhoun.  It  was  at  a  most  critical  period  in  our  affairs  that 
the  abilities  of  such  men  were  called  into  requisition,  and  it  remains 
to  be  determined  whether,  under  existing  circumstances  requiring 

1  City  Gazette,  Nov.  13,  1822. 


HAYNE'S   ELECTION   TO   THE   SENATE  141 

corresponding  talents,  she  will  continue  to  sustain  that  elevated 
rank  in  the  Union  to  which  they  have  exalted  her.  That  period 
has  arrived  —  a  narrow-minded  policy  under  the  assumed  character 
of  economy  will  be  endeavored  to  be  fastened  on  the  nation.  It  is 
to  be  based  on  the  ruins  of  the  present  administration;  and  to 
advance  the  views  of  some  few  artful  and  intriguing  men,  a  radical 
change  is  to  be  effected.  Under  this  view  of  things  it  becomes 
necessary  that  the  friends  of  the  present  administration  be  on  the 
alert  to  prevent  schemes  so  hostile  to  the  welfare  and  prosperity 
of  the  Union.  This  is  to  be  done  by  selecting  as  our  representatives 
in  Congress  individuals  whose  sentiments  are  known  to  be  favor- 
able to  that  enlarged  and  liberal  view  of  things  which  it  is  the 
policy  of  our  government  to  pursue.  The  happy  period,  it  was 
believed,  had  arrived  when  party  spirit  and  political  animosity 
were  alike  merged  in  the  public  good;  but  it  would  seem  to  be 
otherwise,  and  it  remains  to  be  decided  whether  the  system  pursued 
by  the  present  administration  shall  receive  the  support  of  the 
Union  or  not.  To  the  State  the  inquiry  is  important;  and  to 
those  through  whom  the  expression  of  her  sentiments  is  made  it 
is  proposed  to  submit  candidly  and  dispassionately  the  claims  to 
their  support  of  one  of  the  candidates  for  a  seat  in  Congress.  It 
is  not  intended  to  detract  in  the  smallest  degree  from  the  merits 
of  the  present  incumbent,  his  services  are  properly  appreciated, 
and,  should  the  choice  of  the  Legislature  fall  upon  his  opponent, 
Colonel  Hayne,  he  will  at  least  be  solaced  by  the  reflection  that  it 
could  not  have  fallen  upon  a  better  man."  *  "It  is  not  the  least 
of  Colonel  Hayne' s  merits,"  declares  another  correspondent 
in  the  same  paper,  "that  he  is  a  practical  man  and  to  an  uncommon 
share  of  good  sense  unites  talents  of  the  first  order.  At  an  early 
period  in  life  he  commenced  his  professional  career  and,  tho  but 
a  youth  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  few  or  no  advantages  of  education, 

1  Courier,  Nov.  15,  1822. 


142  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

soon  rose  to  such  an  eminence  as  to  astonish  his  superiors  in  attain- 
ments, and  at  once  displayed  the  strength  of  his  mind  and  the  vast 
powers  of  his  understanding.  Nothing  seemed  beyond  the  grasp 
of  his  intellect.  ...  At  an  age  when  the  faculties  of  most  men 
are  just  ripening  into  maturity,  he  presided  in  our  representative 
chamber  and  with  a  firmness  and  manliness  comportable  with 
the  dignity  of  his  situation,  which  gave  at  once  a  character  to 
the  station."  l  Meanwhile  " Constituent "  and  " Missouri"  in  the 
Gazette  were  battling  rather  ineffectually  for  Senator  Smith,  en- 
deavoring to  separate  the  senatorial  from  the  Presidential  canvass ; 
but  that  brilliant  controversialist,  Pinckney,  realized  the  advantage 
he  had  in  uniting  them,  and  just  prior  to  the  convening  of  the 
Legislature  he  discharged  a  broadside  at  Smith.  "Mr.  Smith," 
he  declares,  "is  an  avowed  supporter  of  Mr.  Crawford,  Mr.  Hayne 
decidedly  friendly  to  the  cause  of  Mr.  Calhoun."  Then  taking  up 
for  consideration  the  claims  advanced  for  the  Senator  in  the  Mis- 
souri debate,  he  turns  them  with  great  skill  to  his  purpose.  "We 
do  not  dispute,"  says  he,  "the  honesty  and  integrity  of  Mr.  Smith 
nor  the  zeal  and  firmness  of  his  conduct ;  but  what  was  the  character 
of  Mr.  Smith's  speech?  Did  it  soften  prejudice?  Did  it  gain 
friends?  Did  it  restrain  the  animosity  of  the  violent  or  induce 
the  undecided  to  advocate  our  cause?  On  the  contrary,  was  it 
not  the  very  opposite  in  tone  and  temper  to  what  true  policy  re- 
quired? Was  it  not  harsh,  overbearing  and  vindictive?  Was  it 
not  filled  with  invective  and  retort  ?  Did  it  not  confirm  our  oppo- 
nents in  their  opposition  and  exasperate  the  pride  even  of  those 
whose  moderation  inclined  them  to  join  us  ?  Did  it  not  really  and 
truly  injure  the  cause  which  it  was  delivered  to  support?  Had 
all  the  speeches  on  the  Missouri  question  taken  the  tone  and 
character  of  Mr.  Smith's,  what  would  have  been  the  consequence? 
Would  Missouri  have  been  admitted  on  any  terms  ?    Would  not  the 

1  Courier,  Nov.  18,  1822. 


HAYNE'S   ELECTION  TO   THE   SENATE  143 

halls  of  Congress  have  been  literally  converted  into  a  great  arena  of 
political  gladiators  and  the  fabric  of  our  Union  shaken  to  its  centre  ? 
It  most  unquestionably  would.  Opposition  would  have  been  con- 
firmed, pride  exasperated,  sectional  jealousy  inflamed,  personal 
dignity  mortified,  every  bad  feeling  and  hostile  principle  aroused 
and  our  opponents,  rather  than  yield  under  the  circumstances,  we 
have  supposed,  would  have  thrown  the  brand  upon  the  funeral 
pile  of  our  empire.  ...  To  the  able  arguments  and  conciliatory 
conduct  of  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Lowndes  we  owe  the  fortunate  result. 
...  But  even  admitting  his  speech  to  be  correct,  how  is  his  vote 
to  be  accounted  for  ?  He  voted  against  the  admission.  Rather 
than  yield  to  the  only  measure  by  which  the  Union  could  be  main- 
tained, he  would  risk  the  horrors  and  miseries  of  separation.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  enlarge  upon  this  topic.  Our  Confederacy  is 
founded  upon  compromise,  and  in  a  great  empire  like  ours,  where 
there  are  so  many  sectional  jealousies  to  be  appeased  and  con- 
flicting interests  to  be  reconciled,  he  can  never  be  regarded  as  a 
safe  politician  who  will  oppose  his  own  personal  feelings  and 
private  opinions  to  the  great  interests  and  essential  salvation  of  his 
country.  But  give  Mr.  Smith  full  credit  for  his  conduct,  Colonel 
Hayne  would  have  acted  much  more  in  accordance  with  the  view 
and  feeling  of  our  State.  .  .  .  Mr.  Smith  is  cold,  phlegmatic  and 
uninteresting.  His  only  attraction  consists  in  sarcasm,  which, 
while  it  excites  attention,  inflames  animosity.  How  clearly  the 
reverse  of  all  this  is  true  with  regard  to  Colonel  Hayne,  none  need 
be  informed  who  have  ever  had  the  pleasure  to  witness  his  conduct 
in  the  Legislature  or  hear  his  speeches  at  the  bar."  l  "  Constitu- 
ent" and  " Missouri"  made  a  feeble  effort  to  stem  this  torrent  of 
rhetoric,  with  the  declaration  that  Jefferson  was  no  speaker;  but 
the  Legislature  by  a  vote  of  91  to  74  elected  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  in 
place  of  William  Smith,  senator.2    To  the  supporters  of  Mr.  Craw- 

1  City  Gazette,  Nov.  23,  1822.  3  Courier,  Dec.  5,  1822. 


144  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

ford  this  looked  ominous;  it  was  characterized  as  the  control  of 
the  State  by  Calhoun,  and  the  prophecy  was  made  that  he  would 
withdraw  and  throw  the  vote  of  the  State  for  Adams  or  Clay. 
If  it  had  been  anticipated  that  this  would  be  contradicted,  those 
making  it  were  disappointed,  for  the  paper  most  friendly  to  Cal- 
houn, the  City  Gazette,  in  a  series  of  articles,  defended  such  a 
course,  should  it  become  necessary,  asserting  that  had  Senator 
Smith  openly  and  unreservedly  advocated  the  election  of  Mr. 
Crawford,  he  would  not  have  received  twenty  votes,  and  that 
"neither  Colonel  Hayne  nor  any  other  man  could  have  defeated 
Judge  Smith  but  for  the  imputation,  the  taint,  the  contact  of 
Radical  principles  to  which  the  Judge  in  some  fatal  moment  had 
opened  his  bosom.''  In  the  course  of  the  same  article  in  admitting 
a  preference  for  Clay  over  Crawford,  the  editor  paid  a  beautiful 
tribute  to  Lowndes,  although  probably  as  yet  ignorant  of  his 
death.  "Clay,"  he  said,  "had  joined  his  eloquence  and  his  in- 
fluence to  the  powerful  mind  of  William  Lowndes  (which,  like  the 
Pacific,  knows  no  storms)  and  succeeded  in  calming  public  feeling 
on  the  great  Missouri  question."  1  A  little  later  still,  when  the 
intelligence  of  Lowndes's  death  could  have  reached  America,  a 
touchingly  spontaneous  tribute  appeared  to  the  dead  statesman 
in  the  letter  of  a  Washington  correspondent,  "At  every  step  we 
feel  the  loss  of  the  comprehensive  mind,  the  great  experience  and 
amiable  temper  of  William  Lowndes."  2  In  the  following  year 
one  of  two  new  steamboats,  built  in  the  space  of  six  months  in 
Charleston,  bearing  "evidence  of  the  degree  of  perfection  to  which 
the  useful  arts  had  arrived  in  that  city,"  as  the  City  Gazette  expressed 
it,3  made  her  trial  trip  under  his  name.  But  even  with  the  death 
of  Lowndes  the  Presidential  canvass  of  Mr.  Calhoun  did  not 
seem  to  be  making  much  progress.  Indeed,  the  Richmond  En- 
quirer, under  date  of  Oct.  3,  1823,  declared  that  Tennessee  would 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  24,  1822.  2  Ibid.,  Dec.  30,  1822. 

3  Ibid.,  Nov.  5,  1823. 


HAYNE'S   ELECTION   TO   THE   SENATE  145 

elect  Jackson  by  acclamation,  and  that  she  "ranked  Pennsylvania 
and  South  Carolina,  his  native  State,  under  his  banner,"  with  how- 
many  others  it  was  not  known.1  In  the  session  of  1823,  however, 
the  friends  of  Calhoun  exerted  themselves,  and  at  a  caucus  of  the 
South  Carolina  Legislature,  H.  L.  Pinckney  moved  his  indorse- 
ment for  the  Presidency,  which,  it  was  claimed,  was  carried  by  a 
vote  of  all  but  seven  or  eight.2  A  little  later,  however,  a  writer 
signing  himself  "Sumpter,"  while  admitting  that  the  majority  of 
the  caucus  was  for  Calhoun,  says  that  it  was  more  noisy  than 
overwhelming,  that  the  actual  vote  was  not  taken  by  count,  but  by 
acclamation,  and  in  his  opinion  fifteen  or  twenty  voted  against  the 
nomination.3  Some  other  dissatisfied  individuals  asserted  that  if 
left  to  the  people  of  the  State,  Jackson  would  have  been  preferred, 
all  of  which  simply  indicated  feeling  against  Calhoun  to  a  limited 
extent,  and  failed  to  affect  the  fact  that  in  the  constitutional  man- 
ner and  form  the  State  had  declared  him  to  be  her  choice. 

Two  letters  from  Hayne  about  this  period  throw  some  light 
upon  contemporaneous  events;  but  a  still  earlier  letter  to  Calhoun 
had  shown  with  what  earnestness  Hayne  threw  himself  into 
anything  he  undertook.  In  March,  1823,  he  had  written  the 
Secretary  of  War  in  behalf  of  the  petition  of  poor  old  Mr.  George 
Petrie,  "  a  lieutenant  in  the  army  during  the  war  of  the  Revolution," 
to  be  restored  to  the  pension  list.  He  argues  the  case  for  the  old 
man,  as  if  millions  were  involved,  going  over  the  ground  with  a 
thoroughness  that  leaves  nothing  unsaid  and  arms  every  active 
sympathy  for  his  cause,  closing  with  a  personal  appeal  at  the  end 
of  a  lengthy  epistle,  and  literally  pouring  his  whole  soul  into  the 
plea,  for  the  old  broken-down  soldier.  It  was  a  little  matter  to  the 
great  world,  but  everything  to  you,  old  Petrie,  "for  want  of  such 
a  friend  to  stand  between  captivity  and  thee." 

1  Richmond  Enquirer,  Oct.  3 ;  City  Gazette,  Oct.  9,  1823. 
3  City  Gazette,  Dec.  2,  1823.  3  Ibid.,  Jan.  3,  1824. 


146  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

The  first  of  the  two  letters  to  Mr.  Cheves  is  from  Baltimore,  dated 
November  20,  1823,  and  after  some  personal  matters  he  writes: 
"I  had  the  pleasure  to-day  to  hear  Mr.  Wirt  conclude  the  argument 
before  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  U.  S.  on  the  defence  set  up  by  the 
securities  of  McCullough  against  the  demand  of  the  Bank  of  the 
U.  S.  You  perhaps  know  that  the  defence  is  that  the  Bank  were 
forced  to  disclose  all  that  they  knew  of  the  character,  conduct  and 
solvency  of  McCullough,  and  this  defence  has  been  supported, 
it  is  said,  by  a  learning  and  ingenuity  seldom  equalled.  Mr.  Wirt, 
however,  in  one  of  the  most  admirable  arguments  I  have  ever  heard, 
appeared  to  me  to  make  the  matter  too  clear  to  admit  of  any 
rational  doubts  —  he  did  not  leave  his  adversaries  an  inch  of  ground 
to  stand  on.  The  court  intimated  their  opinion  to  be  decidedly 
with  him,  but  I  do  not  know  whether  the  case  is  at  the  present  stage 
to  be  submitted  to  the  jury,  or  an  appeal  is  to  be  taken  on  the 
points  of  law.  In  any  event,  I  think  the  Bank  must  be  very  safe, 
and  such  is  the  general  opinion."  1 

The  second  letter  is  from  Washington  eight  days  later,  and  after 
commenting  on  the  coincidence  of  the  two  being  at  Baltimore  at 
the  same  time  without  knowing  it,  he  alludes  to  politics:  "The 
Members  are  flocking  in  very  rapidly  &  by  Monday  I  expect  both 
houses  will  be  full.  The  election  for  Speaker  will  excite  great  in- 
terest. Mr.  Clay,  should  he  be  a  candidate,  will  certainly  succeed, 
but  it  is  positively  asserted  that  his  health  will  not  permit  him  to 
offer.  If  so,  the  contest  will  be  between  Mr.  Taylor  and  Mr.  Bar- 
bour, &  I  think  there  is  very  little  doubt  of  the  success  of  the 
former  by  a  handsome  majority.  The  late  Speaker  is  accused  of 
devotion  to  Mr.  Crawford  &  a  nomination  of  all  the  Committees 
with  a  view  to  embarrass  the  government.  It  is  certain  that  his 
appointments  were  very  unfortunate,  if  not  unjust.  It  appears 
that  friends  of  Jackson  &  Adams  have  taken  their  stand  against 

1  Original  in  possession  of  Langdon  Cheves,  Esq. 


HAYNE'S   ELECTION  TO   THE   SENATE  147 

a  Caucus  —  Clay's  friends,  it  is  said,  will  do  the  same.  If  so,  Mr. 
Calhoun's  friends  will  not  find  it  necessary  to  choose  —  since  they 
cannot  of  course  unite  in  Caucus  with  the  exclusive  friends  of  Mr. 
Crawford.  For  my  own  part  I  have  always  considered  the  practice 
so  objectionable  in  principle  that  I  shall  rejoice  to  see  it  put  down 
everywhere  —  I  am  informed  that  the  Treasury  is  rich  —  a  balance 
in  hand  of  perhaps  nine  millions — It  seems  that  our  finances  will 
flourish  in  the  hands  of  the  Secretary  in  spite  of  all  his  wishes  to  de- 
press them. "  *  Which  conclusion  we  must  admit  it  takes  some 
prejudice  against  Crawford  to  incline  one  to  so  readily ;  but  it  un- 
doubtedly confirms  the  view  which  has  been  maintained,  that 
there  was  up  to  this  time  no  such  thing  as  sectionalism  in  the  State 
of  South  Carolina;  for  the  leader  of  the  Northerners  in  the  Mis- 
souri debate  was  preferred  to  a  Southern  Crawford  adherent, 
apparently  because  it  was  thought  the  policies  of  Crawford  might 
endanger  the  Union. 

Clay's  defeat  of  Barbour  was  overwhelming,  139  to  42,*  and 
he  immediately  pressed  upon  Congress  the  first  of  those  succeed- 
ing tariff  bills  which,  in  four  years,  with  their  ever  increasing 
pillage,  effectually  weaned  the  South  of  its  patriotic  impulses. 

1  Ibid.  ■  City  Gazette,  Dec.  9, 1823. 


WILLIAM    SMITH. 


BOOK   II 

THE   APPEAL   TO   REASON 
CHAPTER   I 

hayne's    entrance    into    the    united    states    senate,    his 
portrait  by  benton.    his  influence  from  the  outset 

Hayne  had  just  attained  his  thirty-second  year  upon  his  en- 
trance into  the  United  States  Senate,  of  which  his  colleague,  Senator 
Gaillard,  had  been  elected  the  President  over  Senator  Barbour; 
the  two  Barbour  brothers  being  defeated,  each  in  the  house  he 
was  a  member  of;  and  the  fact  that  they  both  should  have  aspired 
to  the  distinction  of  presiding  over  the  deliberations  of  the  body 
each  was  accredited  to,  in  the  same  year,  certainly  indicates  no 
lack  of  self-esteem.  By  Senator  Gaillard,  Hayne  was  placed  on 
the  committee  of  Accounts  and  on  the  committee  of  the  Navy.1 
Senator  Benton,  whose  first  term  began  at  the  same  time,  has  left 
a  description  of  Hayne  more  in  accord  with  the  painting  by  Morse, 
possibly  executed  two  or  three  years  earlier,  than  with  the  drawing 
of  Longacre,  made  some  six  or  seven  years  later,  by  which  he  has 
been  generally  represented. 

"Nature  had  lavished  upon  him,"  says  Benton,  "all  the  gifts 
which  lead  to  eminence  in  public,  and  to  happiness  in  private  life. 
Beginning  with  the  person  and  manners,  —  minor  advantages,  but 
never  to  be  overlooked  when  possessed,  —  he  was  entirely  fortunate 
in  the  accessorial  advantages.     His  person  was  of  the  middle  size, 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  18,  1823. 
149 


150  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

slightly  above  it  in  height,  well  proportioned,  flexible  and  graceful. 
His  face  was  fine  —  the  features  manly,  well  formed,  expressive, 
bordering  on  the  handsome;  a  countenance  ordinarily  thoughtful 
and  serious,  but  readily  lighting  up,  when  accosted,  with  an  ex- 
pression of  kindness,  intelligence,  cheerfulness  and  an  inviting 
amiability.  His  face  was  then  the  reflex  of  his  head  and  his  heart 
and  ready  for  the  artist  who  could  seize  the  moment  to  paint  to 
the  life.  His  manners  were  easy,  cordial,  unaffected,  affable,  and 
his  address  so  winning  that  the  fascinated  stranger  was  taken  cap- 
tive at  the  first  salutation.  These  personal  qualities  were  backed 
by  those  of  the  mind  —  all  solid,  brilliant,  practical  and  utilitarian 
and  always  employed  on  useful  objects,  pursued  from  high  motives 
and  by  fair  and  open  means.  His  judgment  was  good  and  he 
exercised  it  in  the  serious  consideration  of  whatever  business  he 
was  engaged  upon,  with  an  honest  desire  to  do  what  was  right, 
and  a  laudable  ambition  to  achieve  an  honorable  fame.  He  had 
a  copious  and  ready  elocution  flowing  at  will  in  a  strong  and  steady 
current  and  rich  in  the  material  which  constitutes  argument.  His 
talents  were  various  and  shown  in  different  walks  of  life  not  often 
united :  eminent  as  a  lawyer,  distinguished  as  a  senator :  a  writer 
as  well  as  a  speaker:  and  good  at  the  council  table.  All  these 
advantages  were  enforced  by  exemplary  morals,  and  improved 
by  habits  of  study,  moderation,  temperance,  self-control  and  addic- 
tion to  business.  There  was  nothing  holiday  or  empty  about 
him  —  no  lying  in  to  be  delivered  of  a  speech  of  phrases.  Practical 
was  the  turn  of  his  mind,  industry  an  attribute  of  his  nature ;  labor 
an  inherent  impulsion  and  a  habit;  and  during  his  ten  years  of 
senatorial  service  his  name  was  incessantly  connected  with  the 
business  of  the  Senate.  He  was  ready  for  all  work  —  speaking, 
writing,  consulting  —  in  the  committee  room  as  well  as  in  the 
chamber;  drawing  bills  and  reports  in  private  as  well  as  shining 
in  the  public  debate,  and  ready  for  the  social  intercourse  of  the 


HAYNE'S   ENTRANCE   INTO   THE   SENATE  151 

evening  when  the  labors  of  the  day  were  over.  A  desire  to  do 
service  to  the  country,  and  to  earn  just  fame  for  himself  by  working 
at  useful  objects,  brought  all  these  high  qualities  into  constant, 
active  and  brilliant  requisition.  To  do  good  by  fair  means  was  the 
labor  of  his  senatorial  life ;  and  I  can  truly  say  that  in  the  ten  years 
of  close  association  with  him,  I  never  saw  him  actuated  by  a  sin- 
ister motive,  a  selfish  calculation  or  an  unbecoming  aspiration.  .  .  • 
Of  all  the  young  generation  of  statesmen  coming  on  I  considered 
him  the  safest,  the  most  like  William  Lowndes  and  the  best  en- 
titled to  a  future  eminent  lead."  *  Such  was  Hayne's  portrait 
at  the  hands  of  a  friend;  but  such  also  was  the  estimate  of  the 
press,  in  1839,  on  the  occasion  of  his  death. 

He  had  scarcely  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  his  duties  before 
he  gave  evidence  of  that  ability  to  discern  difficulties  before  their 
arrival  which  he  had  displayed  in  the  South  Carolina  Legislature 
five  years  previous,  in  his  opposition  to  the  bill,  repealing  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  importation  of  negroes  from  other  States  and  Ter- 
ritories, without  special  permission  of  that  body.  On  December 
the  nth  he  gave  notice  that  on  the  following  Monday  he  would 
ask  leave  to  introduce  a  resolution,  proposing  to  the  Legislatures 
of  the  several  States  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  preventing  the  election  of  the  President  and  Vice- 
President  from  devolving  in  any  event  on  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives 2  and  on  that  date  he  briefly  addressed  the  body  in  support 
of  his  suggestion,  which  seemed  to  precipitate  discussion,  but 
does  not  seem  to  have  resulted  in  a  vote.  In  the  latter  part  of 
January  he  introduced  a  resolution  that  "the  committee  on  Naval 
Affairs  be  instructed  to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  establishing 
a  navy  yard  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  for  the  building  and 
repairing  of  sloops  of  war  and  other  vessels  of  an  inferior  class;  "  3 

1  Benton,  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  Vol.  2,  p.  186. 

3  City  Gazette,  Dec.  20,  1823.  3  Ibid.,  Jan.  21,  1824. 


152  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

which  was  read  and  agreed  to.  Being  a  member  of  the  committee 
on  Naval  Affairs,  he  deemed  it  his  duty  to  support  that  commit- 
tee's report,  accomplishing  the  task  with  most  engaging  modesty, 
declaring  that,  after  the  introductory  speech  of  Mr.  Barbour,  he 
could  not  expect  to  partake  largely  in  the  honor  of  victory;  but 
as  a  member  who  had  advocated  it  in  committee  and  cordially 
approved  of  its  recommendations,  he  could  not  fail  to  feel  his  share 
of  the  mortification  from  a  defeat.  In  its  behalf,  accordingly, 
he  good-naturedly  rallied  Mr.  Chandler  of  Maine,  who,  he  said, 
"had  endeavored  to  give  our  little  fleet  a  shot  between  wind  and 
water"  and  "had  attacked  the  recommendations  with  satire,  in 
skilful  hands  sometimes  a  better  weapon  than  argument."  Then 
turning  to  the  arguments  against  spending  the  money  in  the  Treas- 
ury, declared  it  his  opinion  that  "if  wisely  spent,  it  was  better  dis- 
posed of  than  if  hoarded  in  the  Treasury ;  for  if  it  was  not  to  be  used 
for  the  public  benefit,  it  had  much  better  be  in  the  pockets  of  the 
people."  *  Throughout  the  session,  although  the  majority  were 
opposed  to  his  views  on  the  most  important  subject  which  came 
before  it,  viz.,  the  increase  of  duties  in  behalf  of  special  interests, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  in  refusing  to  attend  the  Republican  caucus, 
justified  by  him  openly  over  his  signature  (he  had  in  the  opinion 
of  some  of  the  members  of  his  own  party  exposed  the  country  to  a 
risk  which  he  was  informed  his  youth  prevented  him  from  appre- 
ciating), his  influence  was  nevertheless  marked.  His  speech  in 
justification  of  his  action  in  not  attending  the  caucus  was  strong, 
and  the  argument  that  members  of  Congress,  in  Congress,  using 
its  hall,  etc.,  could  not  divest  themselves  of  their  official  position 
and  claim  that  they  were  acting  in  a  private  capacity  any  more 
than  could  the  President,  were  he  to  name  his  successor,  not  easily 
met.  Again,  the  form  in  which  the  resolutions,  concerning  Lafay- 
ette, came  from  the  House,  not  seeming  to   him  appropriate,  he 

1  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,  Vol.  7,  1821-1824. 


HAYNE'S  ENTRANCE  INTO  THE  SENATE      153 

moved  their  reference  to  a  select  committee,  and  although  opposed 
by  such  a  veteran  as  King  of  New  York,  it  was  after  debate  so 
ordered,  and  he  was  made  the  chairman  of  such  select  committee. 
On  the  bill  to  abolish  imprisonment  for  debt,  he  first  carried  through 
an  amendment  upon  an  amendment  by  Van  Buren,  and  then, 
speaking  at  considerable  length,  in  opposition  to  the  cumbrous 
principles  of  the  bill,  in  answer  to  the  arguments  of  Senators  John- 
son of  Kentucky  and  Barbour  of  Virginia,  moved  in  conclusion 
the  commitment  of  the  bill  to  the  committee  on  Judiciary,  with 
instructions  "to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  providing  by  law 
for  the  release  of  all  persons  who  may  be  arrested  for  debt  by 
virtue  of  any  process  issued  from  the  State  courts  or  courts  of  the 
United  States,  when  such  persons  shall  render  on  oath  a  schedule 
of  all  their  property  and  execute  an  assignment  thereof  for  the 
benefit  of  their  creditors ;  and  that  the  committee  do  further  inquire 
how  far  it  may  be  expedient  to  provide  by  law  for  the  release  of 
such  debtors  from  further  liability,  making  at  the  same  time  suitable 
provision  for  the  prevention  and  punishment  of  fraud  and  con- 
cealment," which  motion,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  Taylor 
of  Virginia,  and  Holmes  of  Maine,  who  declared  it  was,  in  effect, 
the  establishment,  or  looking  to  the  establishment,  of  a  system  of 
bankruptcy,  with  but  slight  amendment,  was  carried  by  a  vote 
of  18  to  17. 2  In  opposition  to  Van  Buren,  on  the  other  hand,  his 
view  that  the  members  of  the  Supreme  Court  should  continue  to 
sit  on  circuit  prevailed,  although  in  that  case  he  was  not  the  original 
opposer  to  the  bill  of  the  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee; 
yet  his  reason  is  of  interest,  i.e.  that  the  members  of  the  highest 
court  in  the  land  should  be  brought  into  contact  with  all  sections  of 
the  country. 

But  it  was  upon  the  tariff  that  he  most  distinctly  made  himself  felt, 
and  placed  himself  in  the  position  of  leadership,  which  he  held  with- 

1  City  Gazette,  Feb.  3,  1824.  2  Ibid.,  April  14,  1824. 


154  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

out  question  among  its  friends  and  opponents  for  the  eight  years  he 
continued  to  be  a  member  of  that  august  body — eight  years  in  which 
he  pressed  with  splendid  but  unavailing  eloquence  that  patriotic  ap- 
peal to  reason,  which  fell  on  such  deaf  ears.  Pressed  it,  witn  even 
greater  urgency,  as  he  felt  the  ties  which  had  bound  the  Union  to- 
gether in  such  close  sympathy  melting  in  the  rising  flame  of  sectional 
heat.  Pressed  it  in  his  last  supreme  effort  upon  the  great  father 
of  the  American  system,  only  to  be  answered  with  a  grandiloquent 
threat,  just  prior  to  the  passage  of  the  ordinance  of  nullification  by 
South  Carolina.  Pressed  it,  and  departed  from  the  Senate,  at  the 
call  of  his  State,  only  to  realize  that  the  great  Clay,  who  could  not 
yield  to  an  argument  which  involved  the  appeal  to  reason,  did 
promptly  yield  to  one  embracing  an  appeal  to  force. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  that  year  of  1824,  Clay  and 
Webster  had  striven  for  the  mastery  over  the  tariff,  and  Clay  had 
won;  for  by  a  vote  of  105  to  102  the  bill  had  passed  to  be  engrossed 
for  a  third  reading,  and,  about  the  middle  of  April,  passed  up  to 
the  Senate.  In  the  Senate,  Hayne  was  the  leading  antagonist  and, 
in  the  opinion  of  Judge  O'Neall,  he  fairly  competed  with  Webster 
on  that  question.1  A  thorough  examination  of  all  available  ac- 
counts will  show  this  to  be  no  exaggeration.  Of  course,  both  were 
ably  seconded,  Webster  notably  by  McDuffie  and  Hayne  by  Macon 
and  Lloyd;  but  these  two  in  their  respective  spheres  were  the 
leading  opponents  to  the  bill.2  No  panegyric  ever  passed  on 
Webster's  effort  equals  in  grace  and  forceful  simplicity  that  be- 


1  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  2,  p.  14. 

2  "  The  debates  upon  the  tariff  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  February, 
March  and  April  and  in  the  Senate  in  April,  1824,  were  admirable  presentations  of 
the  subject.  Webster  in  the  House  and  Hayne  in  the  Senate  put  the  free  trade  side 
.  .  .  Hayne  made  the  really  eloquent  and  masterly  speech  for  which  he  ought  to 
stand  in  the  front  rank  of  orators  and  which  summed  up  as  well  for  free  traders  now 
as  then  the  most  telling  arguments  against  artificial  restrictions."  —  u  Martin  Van 
Buren,"  by  Edward  M.  Shepard  (American  Statesmen),  pp.  85-86. 


HAYNE'S  ENTRANCE  INTO  THE  SENATE      155 

stowed  upon  it  by  Hayne,  although  it  was  used  to  discredit  Webster's 
change  of  heart  in  1828 ;  yet  we  find  scarcely  any  mention  in  history 
of  the  fact  that,  in  the  Senate,  the  fight  led  by  Hayne  was  as  vig- 
orous and  failed  of  success  by  pretty  nearly  the  same  margin; 
although  it  must  be  admitted,  in  fairness,  that  the  composition  of 
the  House  possibly  gave  to  Webster  the  harder  task. 

Still  it  is  strange  that  Webster's  effort  is  known  in  every  quarter 
of  our  country;  while  so  little  is  known  of  that  of  Hayne  that  as 
fair  and  careful  a  historian  as  Henry  William  Elson  declares  that 
"Hayne  would  scarcely  be  known  to  our  national  history  but 
for  the  fact  that  he  drew  from  the  greatest  of  American  orators 
the  greatest  oration  of  his  life."  *  It  must  be  acknowledged  that 
the  education  of  such,  conducted  upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  is 
no  light  claim  to  distinction;  but  had  Mr.  Elson  once  perused 
the  speech  made  by  Hayne  in  1824,  or  been  acquainted  with  the 
incessant  raids  by  which  he  cut  into  the  tariff  bill  by  continual 
amendments  that  session,  he  must  have  enlarged  somewhat  his 
estimate  of  the  man.  The  abridged  debates  of  Congress  give  but 
little  idea  of  the  extent  and  cogency,  the  luminous  character,  the 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  subject  in  hand  and  the  splendid, 
equable  temper  which  marked  Hayne's  discussion  of  the  bill; 
but  the  abridged  debates  do  show  that  the  conclusion  of  the  speech 
brought  Senator  Dicker  son,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  bill  in  the 
Senate,  instantly  to  his  feet  in  an  effort  to  counteract  its  effect, 
opening  with  a  compliment  to  Hayne's  legal  knowledge  and  an 
assertion  of  his  ignorance  of  manufactures,  followed  by  not  the 
smallest  demonstration  of  the  latter.  Benton,  in  1854,  writes, 
"  If  the  Hayne  of  1824  and  1832  was  now  alive,  I  think  his  practical 
and  utilitarian  mind  would  be  seeking  a  proper  remedy  for  the 
real  grievance  now  so  much  greater  than  ever. "  2     To  which  might 

1  "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  3,  p.  113. 

2  Benton,  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  Vol.  2,  p.  188. 


156  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

well  be  added,  if  the  Benton  of  1824  had  only  been  then  thoroughly 
alive  to  the  growing  evil  to  which  the  tariff  of  that  year  was  des- 
tined to  give  birth  and  had  but  carried  one  other  vote  with  him, 
the  bill  might  have  shared  the  fate  of  the  Baldwin  bill  of  1820. 
But  Benton's  vote  helped  the  bill  achieve  its  close  victory.  While 
the  bill  passed  by  a  vote  of  25  to  22,  and  effort  after  effort  to  amend 
was  met  by  this  solid  phalanx,  yet  with  his  determined  and  repeated 
assaults  Hayne  did  wring  some  concessions.  He  drew  over  two 
of  its  supporters  to  his  amendment,  reducing  the  duty  on  blankets, 
which  was  carried  by  24  to  23. *  But  he  accomplished  a  feat  more 
remarkable  than  this,  and  one  that  deserves  to  be  remembered  by 
all  lovers  of  books.  It  seems  extraordinary  that  with  such  a  pro- 
vision, as  he  criticised,  the  bill  should  have  passed  the  House  and 
survived  the  assault  one  would  suppose  Webster  would  have  made 
upon  it;  but  that  it  should  have  been  seriously  defended  in  the 
Senate  seems  even  more  strange;  defended,  however,  it  was,  and 
that  vigorously,  by  votes  if  not  by  argument.  On  this  point,  Hayne 
drew  six  votes  in  support  of  his  amendment,  and  carried  it  by  a 
majority  of  three.  The  amendment  was  to  strike  out  the  duty  of 
37 J  cents  per  pound  on  books  when  bound,  and  33  per  cent  per 
pound  on  books  when  in  boards  or  sheets,  and  to  insert  a  duty  of 
— per  cent  ad  valorem  in  lieu  thereof.  Hayne  stated  that  in  making 
this  motion  his  object  was,  in  the  first  place,  to  get  rid  of  this  singular 
duty  on  books  by  the  pound,  and,  in  the  second  place,  to  substitute 
a  very  moderate  duty  (one  not  exceeding  the  then  existing  duty 
of  15  per  cent)  in  lieu  of  the  proposed  duty,  which  he  considered 
as  equal  to  40  per  cent  at  least.  He  contended  that  the  duty  on 
books  ought  to  be  such  as  to  encourage  the  importation  of  foreign 
books  in  general  use.  It  was  well  known,  he  urged,  that  the  Amer- 
ican book-seller  could  not  only  enter  into  competition  with  books 
printed  abroad,   but  had  almost  excluded  them  from  the  market; 

1  City  Gazette,  May  14,  1824. 


HAYNE'S   ENTRANCE   INTO   THE   SENATE  157 

but  there  was  a  class  of  books,  he  argued,  not  generally  read, 
though  very  important  to  professional  and  scientific  men,  which 
were  not  generally  published  in  this  country.  No  obstacles  should 
be  interposed  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  such  books.  He  stated 
that  he  considered  books  as  raw  material  essential  to  the  formation 
of  the  mind,  the  morals  and  the  character  of  the  people,  which 
should  be  introduced  free  of  duty.  He  also  strongly  objected  to 
duty  on  books  by  the  pound.  "The  value  of  a  book,"  he  asserted 
with  grave  but  delicate  sarcasm,  "did  not  depend  on  its  weight, 
and  he  compared  the  method  of  estimating  books  to  that  mentioned 
in  Knickerbocker's  l  History  of  New  York,'  where  the  Dutch  Gov- 
ernor settled  mercantile  transactions  by  weighing  the  merchant's 
books  of  account  in  scales."  *  Dickerson's  protests  were  unavailing, 
and  even  in  the  House,  where  the  amendment  in  its  entirety  failed 
to  successfully  run  the  gantlet,  books  printed  in  Greek  did, 
the  supporters  of  the  bill  shrinking  from  the  hopeless  attempt  of 
fostering  by  any  amount  of  duty  the  manufacture  of  Greek  books 
in  sufficient  bulk  to  pay.  The  open-hearted  brigandage  of  the  bill 
was,  however,  placidly  announced  by  Martindale  in  the  House, 
with  the  bland  declaration:  "If  they  (the  South)  would  avoid 
the  increased  duty,  let  them  buy  of  us.  We  will  soon  sell  to  them 
as  cheaply  as  England."  Eighty- three  years  have  passed,  colossal 
fortunes  have  been  amassed  and  that  promised  condition  has  not 
yet  arrived. 

But  now  should  be  taken  up  Hayne's  main  argument  against 
the  passage  of  the  bill  into  law. 

1  Ibid.,  May  17,  1824. 


CHAPTER   II 

hayne's  great  speech  against  the  tariff  of  1824 

In  his  opening  the  young  Senator  thus  addressed  the  body  with 
which  he  had  only  been  connected  some  four  or  five  months:  "I 
rise  to  address  you,  Mr.  President,  under  a  greater  weight  of  respon- 
sibility than  I  have  ever  before  experienced.  Being  under  a  solemn 
conviction  that  the  system  recommended  by  this  bill  (should  it 
become  the  settled  policy  of  the  country)  is  calculated  to  create 
jealousies,  —  to  banish  all  common  sympathy  among  the  people 
and  array  particular  States  and  certain  peculiar  interests  in  deadly 
hostility  towards  each  other,  —  I  cannot  but  consider  the  final  triumph 
of  such  a  policy  as  destined  to  put  in  jeopardy  the  peace  and  har- 
mony of  the  whole  Union."  Following  this  line  he  prophesies 
successive  acts  continually  engaging  the  attention  of  Congress 
"in  settling  the  conflicting  claims  of  interested  monopolists  and 
attempting  to  measure  out  to  the  several  States  and  the  various 
employments  of  labor  and  capital  an  equal  proportion  of  protection 
and  encouragement."  Then,  alluding  to  the  dangers  to  which 
the  South,  in  his  judgment,  will  be  exposed,  he  modestly  declares : 
"The  question  has  been  discussed  by  some  of  the  ablest  men  our 
country  has  produced,  and  almost  all  the  arguments  which  belong 
to  it  have  been  already  urged  in  a  manner  the  most  forcible  and  in 
language  the  most  persuasive.  I  did  hope,  Sir,  that  every  shadow 
of  doubt,  which  the  influence-  of  preconceived  opinions  or  the 
suggestions  of  interest  had  thrown  around  the  subject,  would 
have  been  dispelled  by  the  extensive  and  profound  learning  —  the 
brilliant  wit  —  and  the  delightful  and  almost  resistless  eloquence 

158 


HAYNE'S   SPEECH   AGAINST  THE   TARIFF   OF   1824      159 

with  which  it  has  been  treated  by  my  friends."  Some  effort, 
however,  he  realizes,  is  expected  from  him,  and,  "  as  in  the  course 
of  the  debate  on  this  floor,  exploded  doctrines  and  arguments,  a 
thousand  times  refuted,  have  been  revived,  it  is  perhaps  proper 
that  they  should  be  again  answered."  He  accordingly  declares 
his  purpose  to  ascertain  "  the  true  character  of  the  bill  —  to  ex- 
amine the  principles  on  which  it  is  founded  —  to  consider  its  objects 
—  and  to  take  a  brief  view  of  its  probable  effects."  If  this  preface 
be  considered  too  long,  attention  is  directed  to  what  Mr.  G.  M. 
Pinckney,  in  his  "Coming  Crisis,"  describes  as  "Carrier  Pigeon 
Intermezzo,"  in  which  he  declares  that  those  birds  of  strongest 
flight,  "when  released  from  confinement"  and  "rising  up  into  the 
air,"  "turn  around  and  around  repeatedly  before  departing  for 
their  selected  destination."1  "Apparently,"  he  suggests,  "this 
is  necessary  for  them  to  ascertain  their  bearings  with  certainty." 
Hayne's  preface  concluded,  however,  no  further  criticism  can  be 
directed  against  delay;  for  he  proceeds  to  pour  upon  the  bill  a 
flood  of  light,  in  an  appeal  directed  almost  entirely  to  the  reasoning 
faculties  of  his  hearers.  Stripped  of  all  unnecessary  oratorical 
ornaments,  the  argument  proceeds  with  compelling  force.  The 
bill,  he  says,  is  not  a  revenue  measure.  "With  a  surplus  in  the 
Treasury  of  six  millions  of  dollars  —  at  a  period  when  we  are 
anticipating  the  payment  of  our  debts,  with  the  certain  prospect 
of  extinguishing  the  whole  national  debt,  without  any  increase  of 
revenue  in  ten  years ;  it  would  indeed  be  idle  to  talk  of  the  necessity 
of  laying  new  burthens  on  the  people.  I  will  do  my  opponents, 
however,  the  justice  to  say,  that  though  that  subject  has  been  inci- 
dentally mentioned,  they  have  not  pretended  to  defend  this  as  a 
revenue  bill.  Indeed,  had  they  proposed  to  raise  money  for  any 
national  object,  or  even  suggested  '  a  judicious  revision  of  the  tariff, ' 
they  would  not  have  found  the  gentlemen  from  the  South  enlisted 

1  G.  M.  Pinckney,  "Coming  Crisis,"  p.  29. 


160  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

against  them.  That  we  are  found  exerting  all  our  energies  against 
this  measure,  arises  from  the  fact  that  it  does  not  originate  from 
a  legitimate  source  and  has  not  a  constitutional  object;  that  it  is 
not,  in  short,  a  measure  intended  for  revenue,  but  on  the  contrary, 
has  been  devised  by  a  new  school  of  political '  restrictionists,'  who 
are  actively  and  ardently  engaged  in  the  dangerous  experiment  of 
promoting  by  law  particular  employments  of  labor  and  capital.  .  .  . 
The  principle  contained  in  this  bill  is  that  the  importation  of  all 
foreign  goods  must  be  prohibited,  which  we  are  supposed  to  be 
capable  of  making  at  home.  .  .  ."  "  Prohibition,"  he  contended, 
was  the  true  object  of  the  bill,  and  after  citing  declarations  from 
various  supporters,  he  alludes  to  the  disciplining  which  one  of  its 
advocates  received  at  the  hands  of  his  colleagues  in  the  House. 
"  In  the  course  of  the  consideration  of  the  hemp  duty,  an  honorable 
member  from  Pennsylvania  (Mr.  Buchanan)  intimated  a  reluc- 
tance to  go  faster  than  the  growth  of  our  manufactures  would 
warrant,  and  ventured  to  express  an  opinion  'that  the  Western 
hemp  ought  to  be  brought  into  fair  competition  with  that  of  for- 
eigners.' Now,  how  was  this  idea  of  competition  received  ?  Why, 
it  brought  down  upon  his  head  the  sharp  rebuke  of  his  friends. 
The  Honorable  Speaker  declared  the  bill  had  received  an  attack 
from  a  most  unexpected  quarter,  and  Mr.  Tod  replied,  'if  the 
gentleman  voted  throughout  on  that  principle  (which  it  must  be 
noted  was  a  fair  competition),  he  must  vote  against  the  whole  bill.'  " 
After  amplifying  quotations  to  show  that  the  principle  of  the  bill 
was  unquestionably  prohibition,  he  addresses  himself  to  a  con- 
sideration of  the  act  of  1816,  "called  by  the  gentlemen  on  the 
other  side  prohibitory  and  therefore  held  up  as  an  example." 
He  asserts  that  it  "imposed  duties  merely  sufficient  to  enable 
existing  establishments  to  bear  up  against  the  pressure  of  the 
times";  but  expressly  provided  that  the  duties  should  be  subse- 
quently diminished.     This,  he  claims,  was  the  policy  recommended 


HAYNE'S   SPEECH  AGAINST  THE   TARIFF   OF   1824      161 

by  Alexander  Hamilton.  No  matter  how  modified,  he  contends 
that  the  principle  of  prohibition,  immediate  or  eventual,  is  recog- 
nized so  long  as  the  progressive  duties  are  retained,  and  he  closes 
this  branch  of  the  discussion  with  a  spirited  attack  on  "the  Ameri- 
can policy  of  encouraging  home  industries"  until  importations 
and  imports  shall  cease,  as  "  a  policy  foreign  in  all  its  features  — 
confessedly  borrowed  from  Great  Britain  —  Chinese  in  its  charac- 
ter (for  it  deprives  our  citizens  of  the  ocean  which  rolls  at  their  feet) 
—  the  policy  of  kings  and  tyrants,  of  restriction  and  monopoly  — 
at  variance  with  all  our  institutions  —  and  involving  the  loss  of  our 
ships,  our  seamen  and  our  navy."  Proceeding,  he  states  another 
objection  to  the  bill  to  be,  that  "it  assumes  that  government  is  - 
capable  of  regulating  industry  better  than  individuals  —  a  position 
which  is  wholly  untenable.  From  the  very  nature  of  things," 
he  declares,  "  labor  and  capital  should  be  permitted  to  seek  their\ 
own  employment  under  the  guidance  entirely  of  individual  prudence  \ 
and  sagacity.  Government,  from  the  very  elevation  of  its  position, 
is  necessarily  incapable  of  taking  that  close  view  of  the  subject 
and  obtaining  that  accurate  knowledge  of  details  indispensable 
to  a  judicious  determination  of  the  relative  advantages  of  different 
pursuits  in  any  community."  Then,  warming  with  his  theme, 
he  announces:  "I  will  appeal  with  confidence  to  the  Senate  and 
ask  whether  the  most  notorious  facts  have  not  been  denied  or 
perverted  and  the  most  contradictory  statements  submitted,  and 
whether  we  are  not  at  this  moment  left  in  a  profound  ignorance 
not  only  of  the  actual  rate  of  profits,  but  of  the  true  condition  of 
every  branch  of  manufacturing  industry  ?  We  are  not,  we  cannot 
therefore  know,  either  the  degree  of  protection  wanted  or  the  best 
means  of  extending  it.  .  .  .  Here  is  said  to  be  a  flourishing  manu- 
facture (the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods,  etc.),  and  therefore  it  is  to 
be  encouraged  by  excluding  the  foreign  article ;  here  is  a  languishing 
establishment  (the  woollen  manufactures),  and  it  must  be  sustained; 


162  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

while  such  as  have  no  existence  are  to  be  created — some  because 
they  require  much  skill  and  large  capital,  and  others  because  they 
require  neither  skill  nor  capital  (hemp  and  flax,  cotton  bagging 
and  whiskey).  Some  branches  of  industry  are  to  be  encouraged 
because  others  are  overdone;  but  these  must  also  be  protected 
against  foreign  competition,  threatening  to  destroy  them.  There 
are  duties  on  the  manufactured  articles  and  duties  on  the  raw 
material;  and,  in  short,  the  whole  bill  is  such  a  tissue  of  incon- 
sistencies that  the  intelligent  chairman  of  the  committee  does 
not  pretend  to  know,  and  has  certainly  not  attempted  to  explain, 
either  the  amount  of  duties  it  will  impose  or  the  degree  of  protection 
it  will  extend  to  any  branch  of  industry.  In  attempting  to  gratify 
the  wishes  of  interested  individuals  we  are  legislating  in  the  dark, 
and  by  wholesale  distributing  the  national  funds  by  a  species 
of  State  lottery,  scattering  abroad  bounties  and  premiums 
of  unknown  amount;  and  all  this  without  the  rational  prospect 
of  producing  any  effect  save  that  of  sowing  the  seeds  of  dissension 
among  the  people  and  thereby  introducing  mischiefs,  which  may 
last  to  the  remotest  generation.  We  are  literally,  Mr.  President, 
opening  a  Pandora's  box  of  political  evils,  which  when  they  have 
gone  abroad  will  not  even  leave  hope  at  the  bottom." 

In  order  to  attack  the  argument  with  the  greater  power,  Hayne 
admits  that  "the  system  of  regulating  by  law  the  private  pursuits 
of  men,  or  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  passing  laws  for 
increasing  the  profits  of  certain  employments  and  lessening  the 
profits  of  others,  thereby  driving  men  from  the  pursuits  of  their 
choice  to  those  which  the  government  is  pleased  to  favor,"  —  had 
been  sanctioned  by  other  nations.  He  deemed  it,  however,  "a 
part  of  that  system  of  tyranny  and  arbitrary  rule  to  which  men 
have  been  subjected  in  every  age."  In  a  comprehensive  review, 
showing  wide  reading,  he  pursues  this  branch  in  a  vein  of  gentle 
satire,  rising  gradually  in  pitch  and  power,  in  dignity  and  grandeur, 


HAYNE'S   SPEECH  AGAINST  THE  TARIFF   OF   1824      163 

to  a  passage  in  which  he  apotheosizes  the  Union  in  terms  of  beau- 
tiful simplicity,  worthy  of  comparison  with  any  ever  fashioned. 
Passing  from  a  consideration  of  the  doctrine  of  regulation  in 
England,  he  points  to  the  fact  that  in  other  parts  of  Europe  it 
is  carried  still  farther,  and  "  a  man's  religious  and  political  opinions 
are  taken  'in  the  holy  keeping'  of  those  whose  only  qualification 
for  the  task  consists  in  their  anxious  desire  to  keep  down  the  as- 
pirations of  the  immortal  mind,  and  make  mere  machines  of  beings, 
who  have  been  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  the  noblest  faculties 
and  for  the  noblest  purposes." 

"In  the  East,  however,"  he  avers  that  the  system  had  been 
"carried  to  the  greatest  perfection,  the  people  divided  into  castes 
and  every  man  compelled  to  pursue  the  trade  of  his  father;  while 
in  China  the  power  of  the  Emperor  is  exercised  even  on  the  dead." 
He  admits,  therefore,  that  "governments  have  everywhere  and  in 
every  age  presumed  to  regulate  man  in  all  his  pursuits.  Every- 
thing connected  with  his  existence  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave, 
nay,  beyond  the  grave :  the  language  he  shall  speak  —  the  name 
he  shall  bear  —  the  food  he  shall  eat  —  the  trade  he  shall  follow  — 
what  he  shall  sow  and  what  he  shall  reap  —  his  hours  of  labor 
and  of  rest  —  the  place  in  which  he  shall  dwell  —  the  opinions  he 
shall  cherish  or  express  —  the  books  he  shall  read  and  the  God 
he  shall  worship :  everything,  in  short,  which  belongs  to  him  as  a 
created  being  is  the  subject  of  arbitrary  regulation,  and  man  is 
made  a  creature  without  heart  or  soul  or  mind,  a  mere  machine 
obedient  to  the  will  of  the  human  artist,  who  puts  it  into  operation. 
But,  Sir,  we  were  taught  to  believe  that  the  establishment  of  our 
government  formed  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  that 
the  practical  operation  of  our  Constitution  was  destined  to  exhibit 
a  splendid  example  of  the  perfection  to  which  man  would  attain 
when  freed  from  the  shackles  which  had  been  imposed  on  him 
in  other  countries.     We  were  taught  to  expect  that  a  government 


164  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

instituted  by  the  people  and  administered  for  their  benefit  alone, 
where  the  human  mind  would  be  left  without  restraint  to  pursue 
its  own  happiness,  in  its  own  way,  must  by  its  good  fruits  recommend 
a  free  system  to  all  nations.  I  can  well  recollect,  Sir,  that  among 
the  first  lessons  instilled  into  my  mind,  that  which  made  the  deepest 
and  most  lasting  impression  was  to  consider  the  Republican  in- 
stitutions of  my  country  like  the  air  which  we  breathe,  as  bestowing 
life  and  health  and  happiness,  without  our  being  conscious  of  the 
means  by  which  these  inestimable  gifts  are  conferred;  like  the 
Providence  of  God,  unfelt  and  unseen,  yet  dispensing  the  richest 
blessings  to  all  the  children  of  men.  But  these,  we  are  told,  are 
the  illusions  of  the  imagination.  Man  cannot  be  safely  left  to 
mark  out  his  own  course;  but  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  various 
employments  of  industry  and  capital  must  be  so  artificially  arranged 
and  balanced  as  to  produce  results  to  be  prescribed  by  law.  We 
have  been  further  told,  Sir,  that  our  beloved  country  is  in  a  state 
of  such  unparalleled  suffering  that  desperate  remedies  have  become 
necessary  to  save  the  people — I  presume  from  '  their  worst  enemies, 
themselves.' "  Descending  again  to  the  level  of  sober  argument  and 
discussing  the  existing  depression,  which  he  admits,  but  denies  can 
be  called  "  great  distress,"  without  exaggeration,  he  points  out  clearly 
that  the  neutral  position  of  America,  during  the  Napoleonic  wars,  had 
\/been  the  cause  of  "the  rapid  growth  and  extraordinary  prosperity 
of  our  country,"  the  cessation  of  these  wars  occasioning  the  tem- 
porary depression.  "  That  an  increase  in  wealth  beyond  all  former 
example  and  in  general  prosperity  without  a  parallel  should  have 
sprung  out  of  such  a  state  of  things,  was  natural  and  indeed  inevi- 
table. .  .  .  American  enterprise,  like  the  lamp  of  the  magician, 
converted  everything  it  touched  into  gold;  the  growth  of  centuries 
was  attained  in  a  few  years,  and  from  youth  the  nation  sprang  up 
at  once  and  attained  not  only  the  vigor  and  strength  of  manhood, 
but  a  giant's  stature.     It  was  the  necessary  consequence  of  the 


HAYNE'S   SPEECH  AGAINST  THE   TARIFF   OF    1824      165 

state  of  prosperity,  which  I  have  described,  that  habits  of  expense 
should  be  formed,  which  nothing  but  extraordinary  profits  could 
support.  ...  At  the  very  moment  that  we  were  indulging  in 
golden  dreams  of  endless  prosperity,  the  restoration  of  tran- 
quillity to  Europe,  and  the  return  of  all  nations  to  the  arts  and  pur- 
suits of  peace,  brought  her  subjects  at  once  into  competition  with 
our  merchants  and  farmers  in  all  those  pursuits  from  which  they 
had  reaped  such  rich  rewards.  The  loss,  in  a  great  degree,  of  the 
foreign  market  for  our  grain  and  of  the  carrying  trade;  the  loss, 
in  one  word,  of  our  neutral  position,  produced  a  change  in  the  con- 
dition of  the  people  which  could  not  fail  to  be  severely  felt.  .  .  . 
To  pass  immediately  from  wealth  to  comparative  poverty  is  at 
all  times  difficult;  but  when  luxurious  indulgences  have  become 
fixed,  this  cannot  be  successfully  accomplished  except  by  men  of 
strong  minds  and  firm  resolutions;  this  nation  has  been  called 
upon  to  undergo  that  change  —  to  give  up  the  luxuries  for  the 
conveniences,  and  in  some  cases  for  the  necessaries  of  life  — 
to  exchange  the  ease  of  unbounded  prosperity  for  the  habits  of 
persevering  industry  and  hard  labor.  .  .  .  The  whole  of  our 
calamities,  Mr.  President,  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few  words,  — 
debts  and  want  of  money.  Now  debts  cannot  be  paid  without 
money,  and  as  we  have  no  mines  and  cannot  manufacture  silver 
and  gold,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  conceive  how  we  are  to  obtain  money 
or  discharge  our  debts  by  cutting  off  foreign  trade." 

Having  pointed  out  what  he  considered  the  source,  he  takes  up 
the  causes  assigned  by  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  in  reviewing 
which  the  following  passage  occurs:  "If  it  be  said, that  particular 
States  have  lost  a  market  for  their  grain  and  that  our  exports  are 
principally  of  cotton,  rice  and  tobacco,  I  will  ask  if  gentlemen 
propose  to  remedy  that  inconvenience  by  equalizing  the  relative 
advantages  of  differing  portions  of  the  Union?  Must  the  cotton 
planter  pay  to  the  grower  of  wheat  a  portion  of  his  profits  to  equal- 


166  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

ize  their  incomes?  If  so,  some  portion  of  the  immense  sums  re- 
ceived by  the  latter  for  their  grain  during  the  war  must  be  brought 
into  the  account ;  for  gentlemen  will  recollect  that  when  our  cotton 
was  lying  in  our  barns  for  years  together,  the  people  of  the  West 
were  receiving  for  their  flour  sometimes  as  much  as  $30  or  $40 
a  barrel,  and  that  the  manufacturers  then  possessed  a  complete 
monopoly  of  the  home  market. " 

In  the  consideration  of  "the  encouragement  of  home  industry," 
he  contends  that  "home  industry  is  as  much  exerted  and  American 
labor  and  capital  in  all  respects  as  much  employed  in  obtaining  an 
article  from  abroad  as  in  making  it  at  home.  If,"  says  he,  "we 
can  make  cloth  cheaper  at  home  than  we  can  buy  it  abroad,  we 
will  make  it  at  home ;  if  not,  it  is  to  our  interest  to  import  it."  But 
this  rule  he  qualifies  with  this  important  statement:  "I  admit, 
Mr.  President,  that  there  are  exceptions  to  the  rules  I  have  laid 
down.  I  admit  that  the  munitions  of  war  and  the  articles  necessary 
to  national  defence  should  be  provided  at  home,  no  matter  at 
what  expense,  on  the  ground  that  we  should  not  expose  ourselves 
even  to  the  risk  of  being  left  in  the  event  of  war  without  the  means 
of  self-protection.  Beyond  this,  all  duties  should  be  imposed 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  revenue." 

This  abridgment  does  but  scant  justice  to  this  splendid  argu- 
ment, which  should  be  read  in  its  perfect  whole  to  be  appreciated 
at  its  true  worth ;  but  a  few  more  short  extracts  are  added  to  give 
some  idea  of  its  scope.  After  a  review  of  the  cited  "example  of 
England,"  in  which  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  commercial  history 
of  that  great  nation  enabled  him  to  fairly  pulverize  the  arguments 
of  his  opponents  with  incontrovertible  documents  and  governmental 
reports,  he  passes  on  to  as  fully  examine  the  condition  of  Holland 
and  draws  from  such  additional  arguments  for  his  cause.  He 
denies  absolutely  any  power  under  the  Constitution  for  the  adop- 
tion of  a  system  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  encouraging  particular 


HAYNE'S   SPEECH   AGAINST   THE   TARIFF   OF    1824      167 

branches  of  industry,  and  maintains  with  fervor  that  the  regulation 
and  annihilation  of  commerce  are  synonymous  terms.  He  de- 
clares that  the  Southern  members  will  take  advantage  of  the  first 
opportunity  which  presents  itself  to  repeal  a  system  made  profit- 
able at  their  expense,  and,  piercing  "the  veil  of  the  future  with 
prophetic  ken,"  warns  the  Senate  that:  "This  system  is  in  its  very 
nature  progressive.  Grant  what  you  may  now,  the  manufacturers 
will  never  be  satisfied;  do  what  you  may  for  them,  the  advocates 
of  home  industry  will  never  be  content  until  every  article  imported 
from  abroad  which  comes  into  competition  with  anything  made 
at  home  shall  be  prohibited  —  until,  in  short,  foreign  commerce  shall 
be  entirely  cut  off.  If  we  go  on  in  our  course,"  he  asserts,  "the 
time  is  at  hand  when  these  seats  will  be  filled  by  the  owners  of 
manufacturing  establishments,  and  these  will  call  upon  you  with 
one  voice  for  a  monopoly  of  the  raw  material  at  their  own  prices." 
Protesting  against  the  danger  of  a  too  rapid  advancement  of  manu- 
factures, claiming  that  it  is  the  order  of  Providence  that  powers 
gradually  developed  shall  alone  attain  permanence  and  perfection, 
Hayne  closes  his  memorable  effort  with  a  quotation  from  Washing- 
ton that  "our  policy  should  hold  an  equal  and  impartial  hand, 
neither  seeking  nor  granting  exclusive  favors  or  preferences  — 
consulting  the  natural  course  of  things  —  diffusing  by  gentle 
means  the  streams  of  commerce,  but  forcing  nothing."  * 


/ 


1  Speech  of  Mr.  Hayne  against  the  Tariff  Bill,  April,  1824,  Pamphlets,  Charles- 
ton Library  Society,  Vol.  2,  Part  3.     Charleston:  A.  E.  Miller,  1824, 


CHAPTER    III 

hayne's  controversy  with  ex-senator  smith,  the  latter' s 
war  on  calhoun.  calhoun's  abandonment  of  his  can- 
vass for  the  presidency 

The  speech  just  considered  is  more  than  a  discussion  of  the  tar- 
iff;  it  is  illustrative  of  one  of  the  two  schools  of  thought  which,  half 
a  century  later,  the  author  of  "The  American  Commonwealth" 
clearly  points  out,  have  divided  the  people  of  the  United  States 
from  the  formation  of  the  government.  There  is  in  it,  also,  the 
distinct,  if  temperate,  warning  that  the  South  recognizes  that  she 
is  being  exploited,  and  that,  while  condemning  slavery  in  the  ab- 
stract, the  North  and  West  have  combined  to  force  into  their  own 
pockets  a  portion  of  the  results  of  slave  labor.  Not  that  there  is 
any  allusion  to  slavery,  for  there  is  none;  but  there  is  reference 
to  the  supposed  wealth  of  the  South  and  to  the  fact  that  she  is 
regarded  as  "the  India  of  America,  from  which  the  inhabitants  of 
every  other  region  must  have  a  prescriptive  right  to  draw  a  large 
portion  of  their  wealth."  1  It  is  true  the  speech  failed  to  kill  the 
bill,  which  passed  by  a  narrow  majority;  but  that  the  determined 
fight  made  by  its  author  with  others  was  productive  of  results,  is 
evidenced  by  the  assertion  in  a  note  appended  to  the  published 
version  that "  the  bill  received  no  less  than  thirty-seven  amendments 
in  the  Senate,  nearly  all  of  which  tended  to  render  its  operation  less 
oppressive  and  to  deprive  it  of  its  prohibitory  character,  although 

1  Speech  of  Mr.  Hayne  Pamphlet,  Charleston  Library  Society,  Vol.  2,  Part  3, 
Ser.  1. 

168 


THE   CONTROVERSY   WITH   EX-SENATOR   SMITH       169 

the  principle  of  progressive  duties  was  retained."  Yet  one  of 
these  amendments  must  be  criticised  —  one  which  was  carried 
through  by  the  remarkable  vote^of  29  to  18,1  a  concession  to  or 
genuine  sympathy  with  Southern  taste,  to  say  the  least  unfortunate. 
Hayne  did  not  move  this  particular  amendment,  which  was  to 
reduce  the  duty  on  frying-pans;  but  when  Branch  of  North  Caro- 
lina did,  he  supported  it,  and  evidently  a  number  of  Western  sena- 
tors incontinently  deserted  the  tariff  flag  and  rushed  to  the  rescue 
of  the  beloved  culinary  instrument,  thus  securing  unchecked  opera- 
tion for  the  destructive  force  of  what  has  been  denominated  by 
a  keen-witted  Southerner  as  "the  most  deadly  weapon  used  in  the 
South." 

While  the  fight  was  being  waged  in  the  Senate,  Hayne  suddenly 
found  himself  exposed  to  a  hot  fire  from  his  own  State.  Judge 
William  Smith  had  been  defeated  for  reelection  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  but  by  no  means  politically  killed  in  South  Carolina;  there 
he  remained  a  powerful  force. 

In  the  latter  part  of  January,  1824,  Mr.  Calhoun  had  considered 
his  prospects  for  the  Presidency  good.  He  was  standing  "wholly 
on  his  own  basis."  2  But  by  March  the  3d  his  hopes  were  pretty 
well  dashed  to  the  ground  through  the  action  of  Pennsylvania, 
which  in  convention,  by  a  nearly  unanimous  vote  of  125  members, 
declared  for  Andrew  Jackson  as  her  nominee  for  President ;  while 
by  a  vote  of  only  80  she  named  John  C.  Calhoun  as  a  candidate  for 
the  Vice-Presidency.3  Pennsylvania  was  the  State  to  which  Cal- 
houn had  evidently  alluded  in  1821  as  so  far  committed  to  his 
support  as  to  prevent  him  from  withdrawing  when  his  own  State 
named  Lowndes.  After  the  death  of  Lowndes  and  the  nomina- 
tion of  Calhoun  by  South  Carolina  n  1823,  the  sentiment  in  Penn- 
sylvania should  have  been  stronger ;  but  the  above  shows  what  it 

Abridged  Debates  of  Congress,  1821-1824. 
a"  Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  217.  3  City  Gazette,  March  15,  1824. 


170  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

really  amounted  to.  Whether  Smith's  fire,  which  never  slackened, 
contributed  to  weaken  Calhoun's  candidacy,  is  not  to  be  determined, 
but  that  he  exhibited  to  a  great  degree  the  power  of  satire  when 
skilfully  used  as  a  weapon,  is  not  to  be  denied.  Emboldened  by 
the  silence  of  Calhoun  and  McDuffie,  upon  whom  he  had  vented  his 
spleen,  about  the  latter  part  of  March,  1824,  he  extended  the  scope 
of  his  articles  and  took  in  Hayne,  using  all  the  resources  of  his  able 
mind  and  stinging  pen  to  wound  him  also.  In  an  article  headed 
"To  the  Good  People  of  South  Carolina,"  appearing  in  the  Colum- 
bia Telescope  and  republished  in  the  press  of  the  State  (for  it  was 
spicy  reading),  he  declared:  "When  I  had  been  proscribed  by  the 
friends  of  Mr.  Secretary  Calhoun  and  Colonel  R.  Y.  Hayne,  because 
I  was  opposed  to  placing  Mr.  Calhoun  at  the  head  of  this  nation, 
he  being  a  native  of  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  and  a  loud  cry 
raised  in  his  favor,  I  considered  it  a  duty  I  owed  to  a  respectable 
community  whose  confidence  I  had  had,  as  the  attack  had  been 
violent  and  acrimonious,  to  give  the  reasons  why  I  was  opposed 
to  that  gentleman."  Elaborating  these,  he  speaks  of  the  various 
letters  in  which  he  had  set  forth  his  views  and,  continuing,  states 
that  he  had  transmitted  to  Messrs.  Gales  and  Seaton  a  fifth  letter, 
which  they  had  declined  to  publish  in  the  National  Intelligencer, 
declaring  that  "in  (their)  our  view  it  passes  the  line  of  defence  and 
assumes  the  character  of  an  attack.  Indeed,  if  we  may  rely  on  an 
article  published  in  the  National  Intelligencer,  signed  '  South  Caro- 
lina' and  sanctioned  by  no  less  than  six  representatives  in  Congress 
from  that  State,  there  would  appear  to  be  but  little  doubt  of  your 
obtaining  admission  in  almost  any  paper  within  your  own  State, 
and  particularly  in  that  print  in  which  they  state  the  attack  on  you 
first  appeared."  This  article  the  ex-senator  thinks  "was  such  an 
extraordinary  interposition  for  six  representatives  to  make  under 
a  mask,"  that  he  states  he  determined  to  obtain  their  names,  and, 
as  they  had  been  handed  in,  he  apparently  had  no  difficulty,  and 


m** 


THE   CONTROVERSY  WITH   EX-SENATOR   SMITH       171 

he  announced  them  to  be  Mr.  Hayne  of  the  Senate  and  Messrs. 
McDuffie,  Hamilton,*  Poinsett,  Govan  and  Carter  of  the  House. 
"If,"  declared  Judge  Smith,  "Messrs.  Gales  and  Seaton  had  said 
of  their  own  accord  they  were  unwilling  to  print  the  letter,  I  would 
have  acquiesced;  but,"  he  continued,  "for  six  representatives  to 
march  in  a  body  to  a  printing-house  and  stop  a  publication,  having 
for  its  object  the  investigation  of  the  political  history  of  a  candidate 
for  the  Presidency  at  a  moment  when  the  people  were  anxious  to 
examine  the  claims,  was  such  a  flagrant  outrage"  that  he  could  not 
yield  a  ready  acquiescence.  Then,  after  berating  Calhoun  and 
McDuffie,  he  turned  his  attention  to  Hayne,  and  taking  advantage 
of  some  rather  high-swelling  periods  of  Henry  L.  Pinckney's 
advocacy  of  Hayne  for  the  Senate  against  the  Judge,  in  which 
Pinckney  had  surmised  that  although  Hayne  had  never  been  en- 
gaged in  warfare,  none  could  doubt  his  readiness  to  die  upon  the 
field  of  battle,  the  Judge  alludes  to  the  writer  as  "introducing  his 
brother-in-law  (not  by  that  epithet),  Colonel  Hayne,  through  the 
circle  of  civil  offices  and  then  into  the  field  of  Mars,"  and  wickedly 
suggests,  in  a  biting  little  note,  "It  is  certainly  fortunate  for  Lord 
Packenham  that  this  gentleman  never  met  him.  He  would  not 
have  been  a  breakfast  spell  for  him."  Judge  Smith  then  explains 
that  he  had  never  said  anything  against  Hayne  until  the  latter 
had  officiously  intermeddled  with  his  rights,  and  under  a  masked 
name.  Having  disposed  of  Hayne,  he  goes  back  again  to  Cal- 
houn, stating  that,  although  it  is  said  he  has  withdrawn  his  name, 
"as  a  candidate  which"  he,  Smith,  "always  knew  he  would  be 
obliged  to  do,"  yet  he  will  continue  his  investigations,  and  he 
accordingly  elaborates  his  objections  to  Calhoun.1 

But  if  Calhoun  and  McDuffie  were  prepared  to  lie  quiescent 
under  the  charges  of  the  fierce  old  man,  not  so  Hayne.  The 
latter  promptly  strung  his  bow  and  sent  home  a  shaft  which  struck 

1  Columbia  Telescope,  March  20,  1824,  quoted  in  City  Gazette,  March  26,  1824. 


172  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

the  object  aimed  at  fair  and  true,  completely  silencing  the  critic. 
Putting  the  charge  just  as  Judge  Smith  had  stated  it,  he  declares 
it  an  "  unwarrantable  accusation,  no  part  of  which  is  well  founded  " ; 
positively  denies  "that  the  gentlemen  named  ever  went  down,  in  a 
body  or  otherwise ;  that  they  stopped  or  attempted,  directly  or  in- 
directly, to  interfere  with  the  publication,"  and  asserts  "that  the 
only  foundation  for  this 'charge  is  a  letter  annexed  which  they 
published,  addressed  to  the  editors,  which  does  not  even  intimate 
a  wish  to  that  effect,  and  which  but  for  the  remarks  of  the  editor 
of  the  Intelligencer ',  imputing  to  the  State  a  violation  of  the  free- 
dom of  the  press,  would  not  have  appeared."  Sure  of  his  ground, 
and  needing  but  to  state  his  defence  truly,  he  makes  the  truth  sink 
deep  in  the  clean-cutting  phrase,  "It  is  of  little  consequence  from 
what  source  such  accounts  proceeded ;  it  was  for  us  sufficient  to 
know  they  were  calculated  to  injure  the  State  and  were  unsupported 
by  facts."  He  asserts,  he  thought  then  and  still  thinks,  he  was 
under  the  same  obligation  to  vindicate  the  character  of  the  State 
he  represented  as  to  defend  the  reputation  of  a  parent.  Then  he 
gives  the  Judge  a  touch  of  gentle  criticism  in  a  suggestion  with 
regard  to  the  heading  of  his  attack,  viz.,  that  it  might  have  been 
more  appropriate,  "From  the  Good  People  of  South  Carolina  to 
the  Good  People  of  the  United  States."  Selecting,  finally,  the 
weakest  point  of  his  adversary's  statement,  he  observes:  "There 
might  have  been  a  shadow  of  excuse  for  Judge  Smith  in  making 
his  unfounded  accusation  if  the  editors  had  charged  us  with  sup- 
pressing his  letter ;  but  what  are  we  to  think  of  the  allegation,  when 
made  in  the  face  of  the  letter  from  the  editors  published  in  part  by 
Judge  Smith  himself,  in  which  they  expressly  put  their  refusal 
on  the  ground  that  the  letter  passes  the  line  of  defence  and  assumes 
the  character  of  attack?"  Even  the  witty  allusion  to  his  brother- 
in-law's  eulogistic  reference  to  himself  he  replies  to  with  a  dignity 
and  temperance  compelling  respect,  "I  do  not  believe  it  can  be 


J 

THE   CONTROVERSY  WITH   EX-SENATOR   SMITH       173 

necessary  for  me  to  reply  to  accusations  founded  on  the  suppo- 
sition that  I  am  responsible  for  all  the  opinions  of  my  friends,  and 
am  also  bound  to  disclaim  sentiments  contained  in  an  anonymous 
piece  I  have  no  recollection  of  having  read."  In  conclusion,  he 
states  that  he  has  "  sincerely  endeavored  to  avoid  any  controversy 
with  Judge  Smith,  which  the  respect  due  his  age,  the  high  station 
he  has  occupied  and  his  public  services  could  not  fail  to  render 
painful  "to  the  writer's  feelings,  and  he  regrets  that  the  latter  seems 
disposed  to  force  upon  him  a  controversy  in  which  nothing  but  self- 
defence  could  ever  induce  him  (Hayne)  to  engage.1 

In  this  admirable  reply  there  is  not  one  ill-tempered  word,  and 
the  sting  of  it  is  the  truth  of  it.  It  was  addressed  to  a  manly  man, 
and  it  sufficed. 

Judge  Smith,  however,  was  having  difficult  work  in  canvassing 
for  Crawford.  That  South  Carolina  still  took  an  intense  pride 
and  interest  in  the  Union,  is  most  clearly  evinced  by  this  very 
opposition  to  Crawford;  for  when  Calhoun  dropped  out,  Crawford 
was  the  only  Presidential  candidate  who  represented  those  policies 
which  the  State's  representatives  declared  were  of  vital  force.  He 
was  the  only  candidate  who  was  not  a  protectionist ;  for  the  most 
that  could  be  said  for  Jackson  and  Adams  was  that  neither  of  them 
was  as  pronounced  a  protectionist  as  Clay.  It  was  Crawford's 
extreme  State  Rights  view  that  the  followers  of  Calhoun  thought 
made  him  dangerous  to  the  Union. 

About  what  time  in  the  year  1824  Calhoun  absolutely  aban- 
doned his  canvass  for  the  Presidency,  it  is  difficult  to  state  posi- 
tively. In  Houston's  " Critical  Study  of  Nullification"  appears  a 
letter  2  accepted  as  genuine  and  reproduced  by  Professor  Jameson, 
giving  a  very  interesting  defence  of  his  position  on  State  Rights. 

1  City  Gazette,  April  14,  1824. 

3  Montgomery  Daily  Advertiser,  March  7,  1893;  "Calhoun's  Correspondence," 
p.  221. 


174  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

This  letter  is  to  Congressman  Garnett  of  Virginia,  and  while  avoid- 
ing any  positive  declaration  on  State  Rights  is  still  an  argument 
that  no  utterance  of  his  can  be  cited  which  "could  give  offence  to 
the  most  ardent  defender" ;  while,  he  contends,  for  any  act  so  con- 
sidered, his  critics  must  be  prepared  to  also  condemn  Jefferson, 
Madison  and  Monroe.  This  letter  is  marked  July  3,  1824,  and 
would  appear  to  be  in  the  nature  of  a  Presidential  argument  to  a 
possible  supporter;  but  by  the  8th,  after  the  failure  of  the  Edwards 
charges,  in  which  he  and  Adams  acted  together  against  Crawford, 
he  signalizes  that  close  action  with  the  former  by  writing  to  Joel 
R.  Poinsett,  offering  him  Edwards's  place  as  Minister  to  Mexico, 
if  he  is  sure  that  the  Presidential  contest  would  not  be  affected  by 
his  giving  up  his  place  as  representative,  in  the  consideration  of 
which  he  is  permitted  to  "consult  Hayne  or  Hamilton  or,  should  it 
be  thought  advisable,  McDufne."  1  Prior  to  these  dates,  therefore, 
the  committee  of  Congress  must  have  cleared  Crawford  in  their  re- 
port, and  the  author  of  the  charges  have  resigned  and  disappeared. 
Benton  declares  this  episode  injured  Calhoun,  and  certainly  there 
was  a  coldness  in  certain  quarters  in  his  own  State  otherwise 
peculiar.  A  writer  under  the  name  of  "Sumpter"  attacks  him  in 
regard  to  it.2  Whether  this  was  old  General  Sumter  or  not,  does 
not  positively  appear,  but  the  old  General  was  closely  allied  to  the 
faction  led  by  Smith,  and  it  would  seem  presumptuous  for  the  name 
to  be  so  used  by  any  one  else  in  South  Carolina  during  his  lifetime. 
In  an  oration  delivered  by  John  Phillips  of  St.  Andrew's  Parish, 
where  alf  the  worthies  of  the  Revolutionary  War  were  extolled, 
where  a  beautiful  tribute  is  paid  to  Lowndes,  where  "the  cap- 
tivating eloquence  of  Hayne,  the  intellectual  display  and  erudition 
of  McDufne  and  the  laudable  zeal  of  Hamilton"  are  all  rec- 
ognized, not  one  word  appears  with  regard  to  him  whom  the  State 
had  named  for  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  Republic  barely 

^'Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  224.  2  City  Gazette,  July  i,  1824. 


THE   CONTROVERSY  WITH   EX-SENATOR   SMITH       175 

six  months  before.1  But  more  than  this,  "Cassius,"  in  the  Co- 
lumbia Telescope,  attacks  him,  declaring  that  he  "was  a  distin- 
guished orator  in  the  House  of  Representatives ;  but  among  those 
who  were  in  the  House  with  him  there  were  several  his  superiors. 
Mr.  Lowndes  and  Mr.  Cheves  from  his  own  State  were  decidedly 
so,  as  were  also  Mr.  Clay,  Mr.  Pin(c)kney,  Mr.  Stockton  and 
Mr.  Webster;  Mr.  Grundy,  Mr.  Oakly,  Mr  Forsyth,  Mr.  Gros- 
venor  and  Mr.  Gaston  were  generally  considered  his  equals.  To 
be  ranked,  however,  with  these  gentlemen,  implies  a  high  degree 
of  excellence  in  the  art  of  oratory  which  Mr.  Calhoun  certainly 
possesses."2  Having  accorded  him  this  faint  praise,  "Cassius" 
attacks  his  record  as  Secretary  of  War  savagely.  In  far  better  taste 
and  style,  and  therefore  distinctly  more  impressive,  the  statement 
of  Congressman  Gist  of  York  District,  of  his  reasons  for  attending 
the  congressional  caucus  issued  in  the  spring,  was  now  in  the 
fall  reproduced.  The  admirable  tone  of  this  paper ;  the  eminently 
sensible  reason  given  by  the  writer  for  his  support  of  Crawford, 
whom  he  but  slightly  knew,  but  whom  he  preferred  on  account  of 
his  political  sentiments,  opposed  as  he  was  to  a  tariff  save  for 
revenue;  and  the  temperate  declaration, —  "It  was  generally  be- 
lieved, I  might  say,  there  was  no  doubt  Mr.  Calhoun  could  not  be 
elected,  as  his  withdrawal  since  has  proven, — "  3  all  these  things 
affected  Calhoun's  hold  on  the  State.  But  beyond  even  the  as- 
saults of  the  deposed  senator  as  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature, 
and  as  a  correspondent  of  the  press,  a  pamphleteer  was  making 
havoc  with  Calhoun's  popularity. 

Some  time  in  October,  1824,  appeared  a  pamphlet,  entitled 
"  Consolidation,  an  Account  of  Parties  in  the  United  States  from 
the  Convention  of  1787  to  the  Present  Period."  It  could  have  been 
more  fairly  entitled  "  A  Diatribe  on  Calhoun,"  for  that  was  what 

1  Ibid.,   July  19,  1824.  2  Ibid.,  Aug.  10,  1824. 

3  Ibid.,  Sept.  24,  1824. 


176  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

it  really  was.     Charles  Pinckney,  it  is  true,  was  put  before  the 
public  in  a  new  light,  and  Timothy  Pickering  and  John  Adams  were 
subjected  to  severe  castigation;    but  it  was  upon  John  Quincy 
Adams  and  Calhoun  that  the  writer  directed  the  full  play  of  his 
sarcasm.     It  is  noteworthy  that  while  opposed  to  the  school  of 
Alexander  Hamilton,  he  compliments  the  intellect  of  that  states- 
man, and  while  criticising  the  politics  of  Hayne,  Hamilton,  Poinsett 
and  McDuffie,  on  account  of  their  tendency  to  consolidation,  he 
gives  them  credit  for  their  recent  efforts  in  Congress,  describing 
them  as  "some  of  the  most  zealous  and  useful  sons  of  South  Caro- 
lina— men  who,  with  industry  and  perseverance,  knowledge  and 
ability  worthy  of  all  praise,  defended  the  rights  of  the  South  against 
the  ignorant  and  selfish  speculations  of  the  tariff  men. "  1    There 
were  inaccuracies  in  the  pamphlet;   but  the  main  contention,  that 
"Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Calhoun  and  General  Jackson  supported  to  the 
utmost  of  their  power  a  principle  and  a  measure  which  from  the 
very  moment  of  party  difference  has  decidedly  characterized  the 
Federal  party  —  consolidation  is  the  motto  of  their  flag"  —  had  a 
basis  to  rest  upon.     As  long  as  Calhoun  remained  a  candidate, 
the  question  might  admit  of  argument;    but  when  he  withdrew 
and  the  contest  lay  between  Jackson,  Clay,  Crawford  and  Adams 
for  the  opponents  of  the  tariff,  to  support  any  one  but  Crawford 
was  to  stultify  themselves ;  yet  his  opponents  were  unable  to  make 
the  Legislature  of  South  Carolina  realize  the  fact  because  of  the 
devotion  of  the  mass  of  her  population  to  the  Union,  which  they 
thought  the  success  of  Crawford  might  imperil.     Coupled  with  this 
was  the  fact  that  while  South  Carolina  was  against  the  tariff,  her 
people  were  not  opposed  to  internal  improvements,  and  as  each 
tariff  was  hopefully  regarded  by  the  mass  as  the  final  adjustment, 
they  were  not  ready  to  put  the  Union  against  freedom  from  this 
scheme  of  plunder.     Thomas  Cooper,  the  author  of  the  pamphlet 

1  Pamphlet,  Charleston  Library  Society,  Vol.  2,  Part  3,  Ser.  1. 


THE   CONTROVERSY  WITH   EX-SENATOR   SMITH       177 

alluded  to  above,  was  too  keen  a  political  observer  not  to  note  this 
distinction  in  the  State  between  the  regard  for  these  two  policies, 
and  while  he  attempts  to  ridicule  Calhoun  for  what  he  calls  his 
"frolic  to  Deep  Creek  on  the  top  of  the  Alleghany,"  he  declares  that 
he  is  "by  no  means  an  enemy  to  internal  improvements,  if  they  are 
executed  upon  some  plan  of  equality  among  the  respective  States." 
But  this,  he  says,  no  system  proposed,  contains.  Finally,  he 
makes  the  declaration  of  the  honest  partisan:  "Fellow-citizens, 
it  is  vain  to  say  the  monster  party  may  be  destroyed ;  people  who 
honestly  and  with  views  and  intentions  equally  honest  differ  on 
principle  must  ever  remain  two  parties.  There  need  be  no  animos- 
ity, because,  going  both  of  us  to  the  same  point  C,  you  prefer  the 
road  A,  and  I  think  better  of  the  road  B.  Still  the  difference  must 
and  will  remain,  nor  do  I  believe  the  country  would  gain  much  by 
amalgamation.  It  is  well  for  both  of  us  to  be  watched."  *  Grim 
old  fighter !  What  a  world  of  wisdom  is  this  last !  But  South 
Carolina  could  not  be  drawn  to  Crawford,  and  through  her  Legis- 
lature gave  her  electoral  vote  to  the  Hero  of  New  Orleans  for 
President  and  John  C.  Calhoun  for  Vice-President  by  135  votes  for 
Jackson  to  15  for  Adams,  and  only  10  for  Crawford.  "  Of  the  three 
candidates  for  the  Presidency,"  says  a  writer  in  the  City  Gazette, 
"two,  Jackson  and  Adams,  are  known  to  be  in  favor  of  consolida- 
tion, one,  Crawford,  in  favor^of  State  Rights.  We  are  aware  that 
in  this  State  we  have  much  to  contend  with.  Popularity,  ever 
vacillating,  has  in  a  measure  departed  from  the  old  Democratic 
(Republican  party)  and  attached  itself  to  seceders  from  its  ranks. 
.  .  .  Whatever  may  be  considered,  the  claims  of  General  Jackson 
have  already  been  determined;  but  if  subsequent  events  should 
render  necessary  not  a  change  of  opinion  toward  the  individual,  but 
a  change  of  views,  it  will  be  most  natural  and  wise  to  adopt  them."  2 

1  Pamphlet,  Charleston  Library  Society,  Vol.  2,  Part  3,  Ser.  1. 
3  City  Gazette,  Dec.  13,  1824. 

N 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE  CONTROVERSY  OVER  CANNING'S  PROTEST  CONCERNING  SOUTH 
CAROLINA'S  LEGISLATION  WITH  REGARD  TO  NEGROES  EN- 
TERING HER  PORTS.  HAYNE'S  OPINION  AS  TO  THE  TONE  OF 
THE  LEGISLATURE.  THE  RESOLUTION  OF  SENATOR  KING 
OF   NEW   YORK.       HAYNE'S   REPLY 

There  came  before  this  Legislature  of  South  Carolina,  however, 
a  matter  which  did  put  the  match  to  the  fire  of  sectionalism,  if 
the  blaze  still  smouldered  for  a  while.  At  the  very  time  in  which 
South  Carolina  was  opposing  Crawford  against  her  own  interests 
on  account  of  her  devotion  to  the  Union,  the  Federal  government, 
at  the  instigation  of  Mr.  Canning,  the  British  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  was  taking  the  State  to  task  concerning  regulations  with 
respect  to  negroes  entering  the  port  of  Charleston,  enacted  in  1822. 
The  matter  has  been  treated  by  Mr.  McMaster  in  his  great  history,1 
but  inaccurately.  The  communication  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
with  the  opinion  of  the  Attorney- General  of  the  United  States,  had 
been  submitted  to  the  Legislature  by  Governor  Wilson,  accom- 
panied by  a  message  which,  despite  its  bombastic  conclusion, 
disclosed  an  exact  knowledge  of  the  subject  under  discussion,  and 
furnished  an  argument  which  even  the  great  Canning  would  have 
found  some  difficulty  in  replying  to.  After  contending  that  a  State 
has  the  same  right  of  self-defence  as  an  individual,  and  that  it  is 
competent  for  each  community  to  make  such  regulations  and  to 
stipulate  such  conduct  as  appears  on  the  best  considerations  to 
produce  the  greatest  good  and  security,  in  support  of   which  he 

1  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  5,  p.  201. 

178 


THE   BRITISH   PROTEST  179 

cites  then  existing  laws  in  England  concerning  Roman  Catholics, 
he  declares  that  "the  President  and  his  advisers,  so  far  from  re- 
sisting the  efforts  of  a  foreign  minister,  seem  disposed  by  an  argu- 
ment drawn  from  the  overwhelming  powers  of  the  General  Gov- 
ernment, to  make  us  the  passive  instruments  of  a  policy  at  war  with 
our  interests,  but  destructive  of  our  natural  existence.  The  evils 
of  slavery  have  been  visited  upon  us  by  the  cupidity  of  those  who 
are  now  the  champions  of  universal  emancipation.  A  firm  deter- 
mination to  resist,  at  the  threshold,  every  invasion  of  our  domestic 
tranquillity,  and  to  preserve  our  sovereignty  and  independence  as 
a  State,  is  recommended."  1  This  was  evidently  aimed  at  England, 
but  probably  other  regulations  in  other  States  were  cited ;  for  Mr. 
McMaster  says,  "The  defence  were  careful  not  to  point  out  the 
fact  that  New  York  did  not  charge  quarantined  negro  sailors  board, 
lodging  and  fees  and  sell  them  into  slavery  if  they  could  not  pay."  2 
The  same  writer  asserts  that  the  court  decided  that  the  act  was 
unconstitutional ;  but  declares  the  seizure  of  negroes  went  on  just 
the  same.  But  the  truth  is  that  it  was  the  act  of  1822  which  was 
so  declared,  and  in  the  amendment  passed  afterwards  almost  every 
suggestion  of  Judge  Johnson,  who  framed  the  decision,  was  incor- 
porated in  the  act  of  1823,  in  which  there  was  no  provision  for 
selling  the  negroes  into  slavery,  nor  did  its  operations  apply  to  "  in- 
dividuals employed  in  vessels  of  war  of  the  United  States  Navy 
or  National  vessels  of  any  European  Power  in  amity  with  the  United 
States,  unless  they  were  found  on  shore  after  being  warned,  or 
with  regard  to  individuals  arriving  within  the  limits  of  the  State 
by  shipwreck  or  stress  of  weather  or  other  unavoidable  accident."  3 
When  McMaster  treats  of  the  resolutions  also,  he  omits  the  first 
resolution  of  the  Senate :  "  That  the  Legislature  of  South  Carolina 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  7,  1824. 

2  McMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  5,  p.  202. 

3  Statutes  of  South  Carolina,  Vol.  7,  p.  464. 


180  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

is  desirous  of  complying  with  any  measure  necessary  to  promote 
harmony  between  the  States  and  the  government  of  the  United 
States  and  foreign  nations  and  will  cheerfully  comply  in  all  cases 
which  do  not  involve  a  surrender  of  the  safety  and  inherent  rights  of 
the  State."  1  What  he  says  of  the  duty  of  the  State  to  guard  against 
insurrection  "paramount  to  all  laws,  all  treaties,  all  constitutions, 
etc.,"  is  well  put;  but  the  subsequent  extract  quoted  by  him  as 
part  of  the  resolutions,  viz.,  "  that  the  Legislature  was  aware  of  the 
dangerous  and  insidious  conduct  of  a  party  in  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States,  who  were  ever  ready  to  indulge  their  benevolent 
propensities  at  the  expense  of  their  neighbors,"  he  could,  without 
very  much  trouble,  have  discovered,  was  stricken  out.  We  may 
agree  with  Hayne,  that  the  resolutions  might  have  been  more  mod- 
erate and  just  as  effective;  but  the  final  declaration  of  the  his- 
torian, that  "both  branches  having  refused  to  repeal  the  act  of 
1822,  it  remained  on  the  statute  book  at  the  opening  of  the  Civil 
War,"  is,  as  has  been  shown,  not  supported  by  the  facts  of  the  case. 
The  temper  of  the  people  of  South  Carolina,  however,  was 
changing.  Yet  Governor  Wilson,  in  his  message  of  1824,  two  years 
after  the  attempted  insurrection,  is  just  as  earnest  as  Governor 
Bennett,  one  year  before,  in  recommendations  for  a  mitigation  of 
the  laws  pressing,  in  his  opinion,  too  harshly  on  the  free  colored 
population  of  the  State.  There  happens  to  be  in  existence  a  letter 
to  C.  C.  Pinckney,  Jr., from  Hayne  of  about  this  date,  in  which  some 
allusion  is  made,  among  other  matters,  to  this  issue  between  the 
State  and  the  Federal  government,  and  it  puts  his  view  so  clearly 
■  that  it  should  be  quoted.     It  is  from  Washington,  Dec.  21, 1824 :  — 

"My  dear  Sir:  — 

"  I  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  your  letter,  requesting  my  aid 
in  obtaining  for  the  son  of  our  lamented  friend,  Mr.  Lowndes,  a 

1  Courier,  Dec.  16,  1824. 


THE   BRITISH   PROTEST  181 

cadet's  warrant.  Nothing  could  give  me  more  pleasure  than  to 
use  my  best  exertions  in  any  way  which  could  be  useful  to  the  fam- 
ily of  our  deceased  friend.  But  in  this  case  no  exertion  could  be 
necessary.  The  high  standing  of  Mr.  Lowndes  &  the  universal 
feeling  of  kindness  &  respect  for  him  while  living  &  of  veneration 
for  his  memory  rendered  it  only  necessary  to  mention  the  name 
of  his  son  in  order  to  effect  the  object  &  a  Warrant  before  this  can 
reach  you  will  be  in  the  hands  of  his  grandfather  in  Charleston. 
While  on  this  subject  permit  me  to  say  that  in  a  consultation  with 
Mr.  Cheves  this  morning  in  reference  to  the  character  &  prospects 
of  the  youth  in  question  (for  whose  honor  and  welfare  we  feel  a 
very  deep  interest)  we  would  recommend  to  your  consideration 
whether  the  interval  which  must  elapse  before  he  can  be  received 
at  West  Point  had  not  better  be  devoted  to  study  &  the  for- 
mation of  those  habits  of  industry  &  attention  which  will  be  es- 
sential to  his  future  success.  Perhaps  a  private  tutor  (feeling  a 
deep  interest  in  his  prosperity)  would  be  best  calculated  to  do  him 
good.  It  will  be  necessary,  I  should  suppose,  that  particular  at- 
tention should  be  paid  to  Arithmetic  and  Mathematics  &  these 
sciences  would  have  a  tendency  to  form  those  habits  of  the  mind 
most  favorable  to  the  pursuits  in  which  he  is  to  engage.  We  have 
very  little  news  here  to  communicate.  The  Presidential  Election 
has  not  yet  produced  much  excitement.  I  feel  great  confidence  of 
the  election  of  General  Jackson  &  certainly  the  contest  will  be 
between  Mr.  Adams  and  himself.  I  think  a  handsome  provision 
will  be  made  for  General  Lafayette.  In  the  Senate  we  have 
recommended  $200,000  &  a  Township  of  Land.  Something  like 
that  will,  I  think,  prevail.  No  other  important  business  will  be 
done.  The  proceedings  of  our  Legislature  on  the  free  negro  ques- 
tion are  certainly  not  very  acceptable  here  &  I  think  it  is  very 
much  to  be  regretted  that  a  tone  at  least  of  more  moderation  had 
not  accompanied  whatever  measures  were  deemed  necessary  on 


182  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

the  present  occasion.  South  Carolina,  I  assure  you,  has  a  character 
to  sustain  &  her  own  dignity  requires  that  no  intemperate  expres- 
sion, no  threats  of  forcible  resistance  to  the  Natl.  Govt  should  ever 
be  resorted  to.  God  forbid  that  the  necessity  for  such  should  ever 
exist,  but  at  all  events  let  us  not  contemplate  or  speak  of  such  an 
event,  otherwise  than  in  terms  of  unmingled  honor.  Mrs.  H. 
desires  to  be  kindly  remembered  to  Mrs.  P.  and  yourself.  I  am, 
Dear  Sir,  with  the  highest  respect  and  esteem, 

"  Yours, 

"  Robert  Y.  Hayne."1 

The  writer  of  the  above  had  barely  attained  his  thirty-third  year, 
yet  he  certainly  meets  the  requirements  of  temperance  and  dignity  of 
expression  that  his  station  demanded.  Those  qualities  are  not  more 
noticeable  than  his  modest,  impersonal  allusion  to  the  Lafayette 
grant,  and  the  contrast  between  his  allusion  and  other  comments 
of  the  day  is  striking.  With  regard  to  his  connection  with  that 
measure,  Benton  says:  "In  the  very  second  year  of  his  service  he 
was  appointed  to  a  high  duty  —  such  as  would  belong  to  age  and 
long  service  as  well  as  to  talent  and  elevated  character.  He  was 
made  chairman  of  the  select  committee  —  and  select  it  was  — 
which  brought  in  the  bill  for  the  grants  ($200,000  in  money  and 
24,000  acres  of  land)  to  Lafayette,  and  as  such  he  became  the 
organ  of  the  expositions,  as  delicate  as  they  were  responsible,  which 
reconciled  such  grants  to  the  words  and  spirit  of  our  Constitution 
and  adjusted  them  to  the  merit  and  modesty  of  the  receiver:  a 
high  function,  and  which  he  fulfilled  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
country.'* 2  Benton  is  fully  sustained  by  Niles's  Register,  which 
under  the  very  date  of  the  above  letter  says :  "  Mr.  Hayne  went  into 
a  long  and  able  exposition  of  the  General's  services;  and  as  to 

1  Original  in  possession  of  Mrs.  St.  Julien  Ravenel. 

2  Benton,  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  Vol.  2,  p.  187. 


THE   BRITISH   PROTEST  183 

the  matter  of  compensation,  made  it  out  that  he  was  fully  entitled 
to  the  sum  proposed.  (We  shall  insert  the  speech  at  length 
because  of  the  interesting  facts  it  discloses.) "  1 

Of  all  inopportune  times  this,  while  the  Legislature  was  con- 
sidering the  protest  of  a  foreign  power  with  regard  to  State  regula- 
tions concerning  free  negroes,  was  the  least  appropriate  for  the 
Legislature  of  Ohio  to  select  in  which  to  make  suggestions  to 
South  Carolina  concerning  the  negro  question;  for  South  Caro- 
lina was  well  informed  as  to  how  the  free  colored  inhabitants 
of  Ohio  were  treated,  as  has  been  shown,  with  less  consideration 
and  justice  than  they  were  treated  in  South  Carolina.  The 
communication  from  Ohio  was  not  treated  disrespectfully;  but 
certainly  not  in  a  way  to  encourage  others.  The  communication 
only  assisted  the  growth  of  the  impression  that  slavery,  although 
recognized  by  the  Constitution,  might  after  all  be  interfered  with. 
General  Jackson  might  be  a  protectionist,  but  at  all  events,  with 
him  at  the  head  of  affairs,  there  would  be  no  interference  with  the 
vested  rights  of  the  Southern  States ;  and  the  contest  for  the  Presi- 
dency took  on  something  of  the  nature  of  a  sectional  contest.  If  it 
be  admitted  that  Mr.  McMaster  is  possibly  correct  in  declaring,  as 
he  does,  that  "for  the  Presidency  Lowndes  had  not  the  smallest 
chance  of  success" ;  yet,  as  a  moderating  influence,  Lowndes's  pres- 
ence would  have  been  of  great  value  to  the  country,  and  the  breach, 
which  from  this  time  began  to  open,  might  not  have  gaped  so  widely. 
Had  Lowndes  lived,  he  might  not  have  secured  any  other  votes  than 
those  of  South  Carolina;  but  it  is  extremely  improbable  that  he 
would  ever  have  passed  from  the  candidacy  for  President  to  that  of 
Vice-President,  and,  with  the  election  thrown  into  the  House,  the 
immense  value  of  the  state  of  feeling  toward  him,  to  which  Calhoun 
alluded  in  referring  to  him  as  a  candidate  in  opposition  to  him- 
self, —  "He  has  few  opponents,  but  still  fewer  ardent  friends/'  — 

1  Niles's  Register,  Vol.  27,  p.  270. 


184  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

would  have  been  apparent.  Had  he  been  a  candidate,  his  candi- 
dacy would  have  saved  Clay  from  the  necessity  of  choosing  between 
the  other  candidates  and  announcing  the  result  in  such  an  unfortu- 
nate manner  as  he  did  in  his  letter  to  the  Honorable  H.  F.  Brook : 
"My  conscience  tells  me  I  ought  to  vote  for  Mr.  Adams.  Mr. 
Crawford's  health  and  the  circumstances  under  which  he  presents 
himself  to  the  House  appears  to  me  to  be  conclusive  against  him. 
As  a  friend  to  liberty  and  to  the  permanence  of  our  institutions,  I 
cannot  consent  in  the  early  stage  of  their  existence,  by  contributing 
to  the  election  of  a  military  chieftain,  to  give  the  strongest  guaranty 
that  the  republic  will  march  in  the  fatal  road  which  has  conducted 
every  other  republic."  *  This  letter  was  a  gratuitous  insult  not 
only  to  Jackson,  but  to  every  State  that  had  supported  him,  and  it 
aroused  a  bitterness  of  feeling  toward  Clay  that  never  was  wholly 
obliterated.  It  is  not  surprising  that  in  the  intense  resentment 
which  it  inspired,  he  was  thought  quite  capable  of  having  bargained 
with  Adams  for  the  high  office  which  the  latter  bestowed  upon  him 
as  soon  as  he  was  elected. 

Hayne  does  not  seem  to  have  taken  a  very  active  part  in  the 
debates  of  this  session,  although  on  the  matter  of  the  suppression 
of  piracy  he  did  support  Senator  Barbour's  proposal  to  blockade 
the  ports  of  Cuba ;  but  although  the  measure  had  the  support  of 
both  of  the  senators  from  Massachusetts  also,  the  amendment  of 
Barbour's  colleague,  Tazewell,  prevailed  by  a  decided  vote.  Tow- 
ards the  close  of  the  session,  Senator  King  of  New  York  offered 
a  resolution  that  Congress  constitute  and  form  a  fund  to  aid  the 
emancipation  and  removal  of  such  slaves  as  by  the  law  of  the 
States  respectively  may  be  allowed  to  be  emancipated  and  removed. 
For  the  purpose  of  this  resolution,  a  portion  of  the  public  land  was 
to  be  appropriated.  Hayne  promptly  intervened  with  a  resolution, 
declaring:    "That  Congress  possesses  no  power  to  appropriate 

1  City  Gazette,  Feb.  4,  1825. 


THE   BRITISH   PROTEST  185 

the  public  land  of  the  United  States,  to  constitute  and  form  a  fund 
to  aid  the  emancipation  of  slaves  within  any  of  the  United  States 
or  to  aid  the  removal  of  such  slaves,  and  that  to  constitute  such  a 
fund  or  to  pledge  the  faith  of  the  United  States  for  the  appropriation 
thereof  towards  these  objects  would  be  a  departure  from  the  con- 
ditions and  spirit  of  the  compact  between  the  several  States;  and 
that  such  measures  would  be  dangerous  to  the  safety  of  the  States 
holding  slaves  and  be  calculated  to  disturb  the  peace  and  har- 
mony of  the  Union." 

There  were  reasons  why  Hayne  should  feel  a  little  sensitive  with 
regard  to  any  movement  or  pronouncement  on  the  part  of  Senator 
King  concerning  slavery ;  for  it  may  be  remembered  that  the  negro 
Jack  Purcell  had  spoken  of  the  speeches  of  a  Mr.  King  in  Congress 
as  constituting  some  of  the  material  used  by  Denmark  Vesey  to 
incite  the  negroes  to  insurrection;  still,  while  the  subject  might 
well  have  been  "  of  the  most  vital  importance  to  those  whom  he  had 
the  honor  to  represent,"  in  the  light  of  his  own  letter  to  C.  C. 
Pinckney,  Jr.,  the  use  of  the  words,  "unsolicited  interference  on 
the  part  of  the  Federal  Government"  in  the  discussion,  was 
scarcely  appropriate.  In  part  explanation,  it  may  be  urged  that 
at  the  close  of  the  session  feeling  was  running  high,  the  tension 
extreme  over  the  result  of  the  election  and  the  contributory  causes, 
so  much  so,  that  when  Adams  submitted  the  names  of  his  cabinet 
to  the  Senate  for  confirmation,  both  senators  from  the  States  of 
Pennsylvania,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Georgia,  as  well  as 
one  each  from  New  Jersey  and  Illinois,  joined  the  other  three 
senators  from  the  extreme  South,  with  whom  Hayne  aligned  him- 
self, and  voted  against  the  confirmation  of  Clay.1 

1  Ibid.,  March  16,  1825. 


CHAPTER    V 

THE  STRUGGLE  BETWEEN  CALHOUN  AND  SMITH  FOR  CONTROL  OF 
THE  STATE.  HAYNE's  SPEECH  AGAINST  THE  PANAMA  MIS- 
SION 

The  newly  elected  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  was  re- 
ceived with  some  enthusiasm  upon  his  return  to  his  native  State 
at  the  adjournment  of  Congress.  His  elevation  to  the  high  office 
in  the  nation,  which  he  filled  with  conspicuous  ability  and  becoming 
dignity,  had  withdrawn  him  from  the  arena  of  active  politics  and 
lifted  him  to  a  position  in  which  almost  all  of  his  fellow-citizens 
could  take  pleasure  in  contemplating  a  son  of  the  State.  Yet  at 
the  functions  at  which  he  was  entertained,  whether  on  the  seaboard 
or  in  the  mountainous  region  of  Pendleton,  the  memory  of  Lowndes 
was  still  warm  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  his  name  ever  upon 
their  lips  in  terms  of  the  greatest  affection  and  honor.  In  such 
a  condition  of  the  public  mind,  Governor  Troup's  agitation  in 
Georgia  against  the  general  government  made  no  headway  in 
South  Carolina.  In  the  judgment  of  the  City  Gazette  even,  which 
was  closest  to  the  extreme  State  Rights  faction  led  by  Judge  Smith, 
"  the  time  had  not  yet  arrived  when  argument  had  been  exhausted." 
Yet  it  declared  "the  inflammatory  proposition  of  Mr.  King  on  the 
floor  of  Congress"  was  an  "unhalloed  and  desperate  attempt  to 
excite  the  public  mind  upon  a  certain  subject,"  *  and  despite  its 
further  declaration,  that  "the  Union  was  no  light  consideration 
to  those  who  value  their  glory  and  their  interest,"  2  the  sentiment 

1  City  Gazette,  June  i,  1825.  2  Ibid.,  Aug.  1,  1825. 

186 


HAYNE'S   SPEECH  AGAINST  THE   PANAMA   MISSION    187 

of  the  people  of  the  State  was  changing.  In  this  change  the  sec- 
tional injustice  of  the  tariff  law,  more  apparent  with  each  year, 
was  a  great  factor.  The  value  of  the  export  trade  from  the  South- 
ern ports  was  being  reduced ;  while  from  the  North  it  was  with  the 
exception  of  New  England  increasing.  But  the  absurdity  of  the 
claim,  that  less  importation  would  be  necessary  with  the  passage 
of  the  tariff  act  was  disclosed  by  the  Treasury  figures  of  1824. 
The  importations  at  Charleston  had  shrunk  in  three  years  $842,312, 
just  about  what  her  export  trade  had  risen;  while  Boston's  com- 
merce had  moved  in  exactly  the  opposite  direction  to  about  the 
same  extent  in  the  same  period.  But  Philadelphia,  the  port  of 
the  manufacturers,  had  raised  the  value  of  her  exports  $1,330,612, 
and  increased  her  imports  $3,215,608.  The  value  of  the  impor- 
tations, therefore,  was  not  reduced ;  the  channel  through  which  they 
entered  was  altered,  that  was  all.  And  these  facts  were  revealed 
to  the  public  of  South  Carolina  by  an  excellent  press.  The  State 
had  refused  to  support  the  exponent  of  extreme  State  Rights  on 
account  of  her  pride  in  the  Union,  and  the  great  sons  who  had  con- 
tributed so  much  to  its  power  and  might,  she  had  not  only  failed 
to  obtain  the  Presidency  for  Calhoun,  but  the  defeat  of  Jackson 
had  led  to  the  elevation  of  Adams  and  Clay,  the  two  candidates 
most  opposed  to  her  interests.  In  this  condition  of  affairs  several 
bright  young  politicians,  one  of  whom  was  later  to  rise  to  great 
eminence,  and  all  to  figure  as  Unionists,  seized  upon  the  oppor- 
tunity, at  this  time  offered,  to  cut  their  way  to  power  through 
the  advocacy  of  extreme  State  Rights.  His  very  position  made  it 
difficult  for  Calhoun  to  exert  all  his  influence  in  holding  the  State 
to  his  liberal  views.  Presiding  in  the  Senate  with  firmness,  ability 
and  impartiality,  Calhoun  had  raised  Hayne  to  the  chairmanship 
of  the  committee  on  Naval  Affairs,  and  made  him  a  member  of  that 
on  Finance  and  of  the  one  constituted  to  consider  the  abolishment 
of  debt  and  the  institution  of  a  general  bankrupt  law.     But  while 


188  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

he  and  Hayne  were  occupied  with  their  respective  duties,  the  Legis- 
lature of  South  Carolina  was  warmly  debating  the  resolutions  of 
the  previous  session  unacted  upon,  Judge  Smith  bringing  up  the 
Prioleau  draft,  with  an  amendment  practically  reproducing  the 
senatorial  expression  of  opinion  on  internal  improvements.  This 
amendment  had  the  support  of  Hugh  Swinton  Legare,  B.  F.  Hunt, 
Porter  and  Nixon,  in  addition  to  his  own  powerful  advocacy.  It 
was  opposed  by  John  Belton  O'Neall,  A.  P.  Butler,  Caldwell, 
Taylor  and  Gregg.1  O'NealFs  effort  was  said  to  have  been 
animated  and  must  have  been  a  strong  presentation  of  that  side; 
but  no  copy  seems  to  have  been  preserved.  Legare' s  was  that 
of  an  extremely  talented  and  accomplished  scholar.  Butler's  was 
a  noteworthy  specimen  of  eloquence,  for  more  reasons  than  one. 
His  declaration,  that  "for  certain  great  National  purposes  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  is  a  government  operating  on  one 
common  people,  composing  one  entire  Empire,"  is  interesting,  and 
while  he  fails  to  allude  to  Calhoun,  he  does  eulogize  his  close  friend 
and  former  political  associate.  He  declared  that  "Mr.  Lowndes 
was  in  favor  of  a  system  of  Internal  Improvement.  He  was  a  star 
of  the  first  magnitude:  distance  could  not  destroy,  time  could 
not  diminish  its  lustre.  When  such  men  as  Mr.  Lowndes,  after 
mature  deliberation  and  discussion,  had  come  to  such  a  conclusion, 
he  would  pause  a  long  time  before  he  would  say  it  was  wrong." 
By  the  House,  the  amendment  was  adopted  by  a  two-thirds  vote ; 
in  the  Senate,  it  barely  passed  21  to  20,  with  a  strong  protest  from 
State  Senator  Simkins,  also  a  close  friend  of  Calhoun.  Then  came 
the  death  of  Senator  Gaillard  and  the  appointment  of  William 
Harper  to  the  vacancy  by  Governor  Manning.  It  does  seem  un- 
fortunate that  this  play  of  politics  for  position  should  have  taken 
up  so  much  of  the  time  and  attention  of  the  Legislature ;  for  it  pre- 
vented that  body  from  taking  up  as  early  as  they  otherwise  almost 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  19,  1825. 


HAYNE'S   SPEECH   AGAINST  THE   PANAMA  MISSION    189 

certainly  would  have  done  the  great  question  of  railways.  The 
historian  Elson  says:  "The  first  steam  locomotive  was  brought 
from  England  in  1829,  where  experiments  in  steam  railways  had 
been  in  progress  for  over  ten  years,  but  it  proved  a  failure.  In 
1 83 1,  however,  a  locomotive  was  successfully  used  in  South  Caro- 
lina, and  within  a  few  years  others  were  in  operation  in  various 
parts  of  the  country."  *  Mr.  McMaster,  with  great  ability,  succeeds 
in  avoiding  this  statement,  while  treating  the  subject  very  fully. 
The  authority  from  which  he  draws  most  of  his  data  summarizes 
the  matter  as  follows :  "The  South  Carolina  Railroad  was  accord- 
ingly the  first  road  in  the  world  built  expressly  for  locomotives,  the 
pioneer  in  having  the  first  locomotive  for  actual  service  in  America 
built  for  their  use ;  also  the  first  to  order  a  locomotive  built  in  their 
midst  and  by  one  of  their  own  native  mechanics  and  citizens."  2 
The  name  of  this  man  should  be  remembered.  He  was  E.  L. 
Miller  of  Charleston,  who  in  1829  went  to  England  to  investigate 
the  subject  thoroughly,  and,  returning,  offered  to  construct  a  loco- 
motive for  the  road,  which  the  direction  accepted.3  We  have  seen 
that  the  suggestion  of  operating  a  railway  by  steam  was  made  by 
"  H  "  in  the  fall  of  182 1 ;  but  the  following  year  opened  the  struggle 
between  Calhoun  and  Smith  for  control  of  the  State,  and  pretty 
well  occupied  attention  for  four  years.  While  Judge  Smith  was 
preparing  for  his  war  on  internal  improvements,  an  even  greater 
Carolinian,  Stephen  Elliott  —  a  force  in  all  industrial  and  educational 
movements  in  the  State  —  was  elected  an  honorary  member  of  the 
Linnaean  Society  at  Paris;  and  a  little  earlier,  in  the  year  of  1825, 
a  correspondent  of  the  City  Gazette  sarcastically  remarks:  "Al- 
though the  railways  have  been  so  supremely  spurned  in  all  the 
calculations  of  our  deeply  read  and  highly  experienced  Internal 

1  Elson,  "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  3,  p.  94. 

2  Brown,  "History  of  the  First  Locomotive  in  America,"  p.  151. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  139. 


190  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Improvements,  it  is  presumed  that  the  advocates  for  their  adoption 
may  now,  after  so  long  a  silence,  presume  to  allude  to  them."  * 
But  politics  still  held  the  stage  at  Columbia.  In  the  United  States 
Senate,  Hayne  had  introduced  a  bill  for  the  establishment  of  a 
naval  academy,  apparently  at  the  suggestion  or  in  accord  with  the 
idea  of  the  administration ;  but  on  the  question  of  the  expediency 
./'"of  sending  ministers  to  the  Congress  of  American  Nations  at 
Panama,  he  put  himself  promptly  in  opposition  to  the  views  of 
Adams  and  Clay.  After  a  long  fight  the  administration  won  by 
a  vote  of  24  to  19. 

Although  the  question  of  slavery  did  come  up  in  the  debate,  the 
division  was  not  exactly  sectional,  as  at  least  four  senators  from 
the  slave  States  voted  to  send  and  five  from  the  Northern  States 
not  to  send.  Hayne  opposed  the  measure  earnestly  and  consist- 
ently from  first  to  last  on  every  vote.  His  speech  in  opposition 
to  sending  does  not  reach  the  lofty  height  of  his  great  effort  against 
the  tariff  bill  of  1824,  but  was  marked,  as  has  been  previously 
shown  his  earliest  effort  at  oratory  was,  by  an  accurate  apprehen- 
sion of  an  idea  many  years  later  announced  by  a  famous  writer, 
and  at  that  subsequent  time  hailed  as  strikingly  original.  On 
that  occasion  it  was  Lecky;  in  the  Panama  speech  it  was  Bryce. 
In  the  first  edition  of  "  The  American  Commonwealth,"  Mr.  Bryce, 
with  fine  rhetoric,  pictures  conditions  in  the  United  States  as  fol- 
lows, "Towering  over  Presidents  and  State  Governors,  over 
Congress  and  State  Legislatures,  over  conventions  and  the  vast 
machinery  of  party,  public  opinion  stands  out  in  the  United  States 
as  the  great  source  of  power,  the  master  of  servants  who  tremble 
before  it."  The  sonorous  roll  of  these  periods  should  not  so  cap- 
tivate the  imagination  as  to  prevent  us  from  realizing  that  the 
thought  is  as  thoroughly  expressed,  if  less  poetically,  by  Hayne, 
in  his  speech  against  the  Panama  mission,  more  than  half  a  cen- 

1  City  Gazette,  April  8,  1825. 


HAYNE'S   SPEECH   AGAINST  THE   PANAMA  MISSION    191 

tury  before.  In  the  second  of  the  three  divisions  into  which  he 
groups  his  objections,  and  where  he  might  with  advantage  have 
contented  himself  with  the  preamble,  he  thus  opens  the  discussion : 
"The  United  States  were  the  first  to  set  its  face  against  the  slave 
trade  and  the  first  to  suppress  it  among  their  own  citizens.  We 
are  entitled  to  the  honor  of  having  effectually  accomplished  this 
great  object,  not  more  by  the  force  of  our  laws  than  by  the  om- 
nipotent power  of  public  opinion  —  a  power  in  this  country  para- 
mount to  the  laws  themselves."  *  Proceeding  with  the  discussion, 
he  observes:  " In* all  measures  of  this  character,  every  portion  of 
our  fellow-citizens  have  cordially  cooperated,  and  even  in  those 
States  where  slavery  still  exists,  the  people  have  gone  heart  and 
hand  with  their  Government  in  every  measure  calculated  to  cut 
out  this  nefarious  trade  by  the  roots.  Having  done  so  much,  we 
may  well  call  upon  other  nations  to  'go  and  do  likewise,'  before 
they  can  be  permitted  to  taunt  us  on  this  subject  as  one  of  these 
South  American  ministers  has  done."  But  as  Hayne  took  care 
to  say  that  he  apprehended  no  violation  of  the  constitutional  rights 
of  the  South,  he  could  have  well  afforded  to  omit  any  declaration 
of  what  the  Southern  States  would  do  if  they  were  violated.  And 
again  it  was  a  great  mistake  to  take  the  ground,  that  to  discuss 
slavery  was  to  violate  a  right.  That  slavery  was  distinctly  sanc- 
tioned by  the  Constitution,  a  perusal  of  the  terms  of  that  instru- 
ment cannot  fail  to  disclose;  but  it  Jtad  been  discussed,  and,  as 
Sergeant  knew,  to  his  intense  chagrin,  established  in  Missouri  by 
act  of  Congress;  for  he  had  incontrovertibly  demonstrated  this, 
if  he  had  accomplished  nothing  else  in  the  great  debate  on  the 
Missouri  question ;  while  to  hang  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United 
States  entirely  upon  the  requirements  of  an  institution  prevailing 
in,  at  most,  but  half  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  was  to  place  that 

1  Hayne's  Speech,  De  Saussure  Pamphlets,  No.   7,  p.   20,  Charleston  Library- 
Society. 


192  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

institution  in  too  prominent  a  national  position.  There  was 
strong  ground  for  the  claim  that  the  regulations  of  the  State  of  South 
Carolina,  with  regard  to  negroes  entering  her  ports,  was  within 
her  police  power;  but  to  claim  that  the  United  States  must  "pro- 
test against  the  Independence  of  Haiti,"  because  "you  find  men 
of  color  at  the  head  of"  her  "armies,  in  the  legislative  halls  and 
executive  departments,"  *  was  unreasonable.  In  other  respects, 
the  speech  was  a  notable  contribution  to  the  thought  of  the  day. 
Hayne's  views  on  the  Monroe  Doctrine  brought  him  into  direct 
issue  with  Webster  in  the  House ;  but  history  has-  not  yet  developed 
with  sufficient  clearness  what  the  doctrine  is  for  us  to  judge  who 
was  right.  On  the  proposition  advanced  by  the  President,  that 
"the  moral  influence  of  the  United  States  may  perhaps  be  exerted 
with  beneficial  consequences"  for  "the  advancement  of  religious 
liberty,"  he  having  suggested  that,  as  "some  of  the  Southern 
Nations  have  incorporated  an  exclusive  church,  the  abandonment 
of  this  last  badge  of  religious  bigotry  and  oppression  maybe  pressed, 
etc.,"  Hayne  was  on  firm  ground  in  opposition  and  declared  with 
powerful  emphasis:  "It  is  against  the  spirit  of  our  Constitution 
to  interfere  in  any  way  with  the  religion  of  our  own  People,  I  should 
conclude  it  must  be  altogether  foreign  to  our  policy  to  interfere 
with  the  religion  of  other  nations.  We  both  believe  ourselves  to 
be  right,  and  I  know  of  no  power  but  that  of  the  Almighty  which 
can  decide  between  us."  Passing  to  the  consideration,  that  the 
authorization  of  the  mission  would  be  a  violation  of  neutrality, 
he  sustained  that  contention  with  a  strength  of  argument  and 
felicity  of  illustration  quite  impressive.  The  opening  of  the  speech 
did,  it  is  true,  contain  a  sarcastic  reference  to  what  had  been 
claimed,  from  a  high  quarter,  the  mission  was  designed  to  ac- 
complish, viz.,  "to  present  an  imposing  spectacle  to  the  eyes  of  the 

1  Hayne's  Speech,  De  Saussure  Pamphlets,  No.  7,  p.  20,  Charleston  Library 
Society. 


HAYNE'S   SPEECH   AGAINST   THE   PANAMA  MISSION    193 

world;"  but  in  the  main  the  speech  was  an  appeal  to  the  reason 
rather  than  the  emotions  of  his  hearers,  and,  without  any  attempt 
at  a  peroration,  the  simple  conclusion  was,  "if  this  extraordinary- 
mission  must  be  sanctioned,  I  will  wash  my  hands  of  it." 

From  the  closing  discussion  in  the  House  between  McDuffie 
of  South  Carolina  and  Trimble  of  Kentucky,  it  almost  appeared 
as  if  Jackson  and  Adams  had  been  lost  sight  of  in  the  rivalry 
between  Calhoun  and  Clay;  for  if  Clay  had  formed  a  coalition 
with  Adams,  his  defenders  inquired,  had  not  Calhoun  effected 
the  same  with  Jackson?  Meanwhile,  in  the  South  Carolina 
Legislature,  the  vote  to  supply  the  vacancy  made  by  the  death 
of  United  States  Senator  Gaillard  was  very  close,  but  resulted  in 
the  election  of  Judge  Smith  by  83,  to  81  for  D.  E.  Huger.1 
The  Georgia  papers  were  delighted  at  the  election  of  a  Craw- 
ford supporter,  and  the  Augusta  Constitutionalist  declared  that  it 
was  evidence  of  the  fact  that  "  Calhoun  was  not  all  powerful  in 
the  State  of  South  Carolina." 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  4, 1826. 


CHAPTER    VI 

A  GLIMPSE  OF  SOCIETY  AT  THE  FEDERAL  CAPITAL  AND  AT  CHARLES- 
TON IN  THE  TWENTIES.  CHARITABLE,  EDUCATIONAL,  RELIG- 
IOUS AND   INDUSTRIAL    CONDITIONS    AT    THE    LATTER    PLACE 

We  may  get  a  glimpse,  if  only  a  glimpse,  of  social  conditions  at 
the  Federal  capital  and  Charleston  from  some  private  letters  of 
this  period.  An  extract  from  one  written  to  Charleston  from  Wash- 
ington, by  a  lady  visiting  the  President's  wife,  throws  some  light 
on  the  time.  The  lady  in  question  was  a  friend  of  Mrs.  Adams, 
and  writes  from  the  White  House,  January  18,  1826,  to  her  friend, 
Charles  Manigault  of  Charleston:  "There  is  a  great  deal  of 
company  at  home,  a  drawing  room  once  a  fortnight  &  a  dinner 
once  a  week,  generally  of  thirty-eight  ladies  and  gentlemen;  this 
is  a  pretty  stupid  business  —  all  the  members  of  congress  & 
senators  &  their  wives  and  daughters,  if  they  have  any,  are  in- 
vited &  it  often  happens  that  neither  the  President  nor  Mrs.  A, 
nor  any  of  the  family  know  the  names  of  some  of  their  company ; 
for  they  just  call  and  leave  their  cards  and  then  they  are  put  down 
on  the  list  to  be  invited  when  their  turn  comes,  poor  souls  I  pity 
them  as  they  enter  these  large  apartments  &  see  none  but  strangers 
surrounding  them;  but  Mrs.  A's  manners  are  very  easy  &  affable, 
she  soon  contrives  to  find  out  whence  they  come  and  talk  to  them 
about  their  home  &  the  Influenza  &  the  weather,  this  never  failing 
inexhaustible  subject  of  conversation.  Mr.  &  Mrs.  Hayne  and 
Colonel  Drayton  &  the  Websters  had  their  dinner  before  I  came 
here,  but  if  the  session  should  be  a  long  one  their  turn  will  come 

194 


SOCIETY   IN  THE   TWENTIES  195 

again  &  I  shall  be  glad  of  it.  The  drawing  rooms  are  very  crowded, 
last  Wednesday  there  were  upwards  of  400  people  &  they  appear  to 
come  from  all  quarters  of  Uncle  Sam's  dominions  &  some  queer- 
looking  objects  you  may  suppose  amongst  such  a  number,  the 
company  begins  to  assemble  about  J  past  7  or  8  and  at  10  it  is  all 
over  &  an  amazing  scene  it  is.  They  say  here  the  City  is  uncom- 
monly dull  this  winter  owing  to  the  families  of  the  heads  of  the 
departments  being  all  in  mourning  except  Mr.  Rush,  the  secy  of 
the  treasury  &  he  only  gives  gentlemen  dinners,  the  poor  ladies 
are  left  out.  Mrs.  Rush  however  promises  them  a  dance.  Mdme 
de  Mareuil  has  begun  her  soirees,  last  Saturday  was  the  first, 
they  are  to  be  every  fortnight  only  but  as  they  are  regular  dances 
much  pleasure  is  anticipated  at  her  house.  Waltzing  is  quite  the 
fashion  here  among  the  Americans  as  well  as  the  foreigners,  ten 
&  twelve  couples  &  often  more  set  off  at  once  &  I  am  told  that 
many  of  my  countrywomen  equal  the  most  expert  strangers  in 
this  graceful  dance."  i 

In  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  Henry  W.  Conner  from  Charleston 
to  his  mother  and  sister  in  North  Carolina,  on  March  26,  1825,  the 
description  given  of  the  entertainment  to  General  Lafayette  in  that 
city  imparts  an  idea  of  the  dressing  of  the  day  and  the  wealth  evi- 
denced thereby.  He  says:  "The  room  was  180  to  200  feet  long 
&  on  it  ranged  round  on  seats  rising  gradually  one  above  the  other 
were  ranged  1800  ladies  as  richly  &  as  tastefully  dressed  as  the 
fancy  or  purse  of  each  one  would  allow.  Many  of  the  dresses 
were  most  brilliant  as  well  as  costly ;  steel  seemed  to  triumph  over 
gold,  and  silver  was  quite  in  the  background.  Some  of  the  trap- 
pings of  our  Nabobs  daughters  must  have  cost  2  to  $3000,  or  per- 
haps more.  The  dresses  were  all  white  &  in  some  cases  a  thin 
netting  of  steel  or  gold  or  silver  gauze  was  woven  over  a  white 
muslin  dress.     The  trimmings  were  either  white,  pink  or  blue. 

1  Original  in  possession  of  Miss  Ellen  H.  Jervey  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 


196  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

Most  of  them  wore  something  like  spencers  that  fit  close  to  the  body 
of  pink  or  white  &  all  wore  rich  headdresses  with  a  profusion  of 
diamonds  and  jewels  of  all  grades  from  the  common  paste  up  to 
the  diamond  of  the  1st  water."  * 

A  letter  of  date  August  21,  1826,  from  that  old  Revolutionary 
soldier,  Alexander  Garden,  the  author  of  Garden's  "Anecdotes," 
affords  interesting  contrast  with  letters  following  in  succeeding 
years,  when  temper  was  warm  and  sectionalism  rife  He  declines 
an  invitation  from  Mr.  Manigault,  giving  as  a  reason  that  "Major 
James  Hamilton,  Senr.,  my  former  companion  in  arms  in  whose 
tent  I  passed  during  the  War  of  the  Revolution  an  entire  winter 
and  under  whose  command  I  was  at  the  period  when  the  retreat 
of  the  enemy  put  our  country  in  possession  of  Charleston,  has  pro- 
posed to  me,  after  the  4th  of  July,  1827,  to  sail  to  the  North  and 
wile  away  the  Summer  Months  among  friends  of  our  more  youthful 
days,  indulging  the  recollection  of  all  that  we  have  seen  &  suffered 
together,  and  giving  to  declining  life  a  review  of  the  scenes  the  best 
calculated  to  increase  its  enjoyments."  Then  follows  a  description 
of  some  society,  called  the  "Tertulia,"  of  which  he  says,  "this  last 
was  splendid  indeed  and  tho  neither  Ella  nor  Meta  shone  as  they 
were  wont  to  do  with  superior  lustre,  there  was  the  gentle  Sally 
Alston,  the  Deas's,  Pringles  (married  &  single),  Miss  Mary  More 
Smith,  who  by  the  way  pouted  exceedingly  because  the  unlucky 
dog  Nimrod  asserted  that  her  eyes  did  scorch  him  like  a  burning 
glass,  the  sweet  songstress  Mrs.  Porcher  cum  multis  aliis  who 
gave  an  eclat  to  the  scene  most  truly  fascinating."  Major  Garden 
adds  to  this  the  narrative  of  the  relief  of  a  pressed  scholar,  about  to 
part  with  his  library,  for  whom  a  present  of  $2500  was  promptly 
subscribed,  "with  a  request  that  not  a  volume  should  quit  the  shelf 
it  was  destined  to  occupy."  The  writer  declares  the  contributions 
were  so  generous  that  he  was  enabled  to  avoid  calling  upon  some, 

1  Original  in  possession  of  Miss  Mary  Conner  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 


SOCIETY   IN   THE   TWENTIES  197 

"who  had  forsaken  prudence  to  embrace  humanity,"  and  he  con- 
cludes, "Man  is  by  no  means  as  selfish  an  animal  as  cynics  would 
insinuate  &  teach  us  to  believe."  Following  this  are  two  interest- 
ing incidents  of  the  time.  "  One  of  the  most  ridiculous  occurrences 
imaginable  had  occasioned  a  quarrel  between  two  of  our  most 
spirited  young  men.  Both  were  bent  on  hostility,  and  the  whole 
Society  regarded  the  shedding  of  blood  as  a  necessary  consequence. 
It  was  reported  to  the  Senior  Members  of  the  Cincinnati,  that  two 
of  their  younger  Brethren,  under  the  influence  of  ungovernable 
rage,  were  to  meet  with  the  determination  that  one  or  the  other 
should  fall.  They,  without  a  moment's  delay,  formed  themselves 
into  a  Court  of  Honor  &  having  obtained  the  consent  of  the  con- 
tending parties  to  examine  into  the  cause  of  the  difference  and  oc- 
currences arising  therefrom,  readily  perceived  that  error  and  mis- 
conception had  been  the  basis  of  the  whole.  To  persist  in  the 
resolution  to  cut  each  other's  throats  therefore  appeared  absurd, 
and  by  temper  and  moderation  they  have  at  length  succeeded  in 
uniting  in  friendship  men  who,  according  to  the  principles  of  the 
institution,  were  bound  to  love  and  cherish  each  other  through 
life  as  Brothers.  I  would  not  for  worlds  relinquish  the  pleasurable 
sensation  I  felt,  when  the  father  of  one  of  the  parties  thanked  me 
for  the  interest  taken  in  preserving  to  him  a  son  tenderly  beloved. 
'And  yet,  Garden'  (he  broodingly  said),  'I  know  not  whether  I 
should  not  rather  have  seen  my  boy  a  corpse  than  to  meet  him 
entering  my  doors  after  having  embued  his  hands  in  the  blood  of 
a  fellow-creature.'"  In  the  second  incident,  the  letter  narrates, 
we  can  supply  the  conclusion  which  the  writer  at  the  time  was 
ignorant  of.  "  Another  affair  of  Honor  greatly  agitates  the  Pub- 
lic Mind.  Pettigrew  (Petigru)  and  Colonel  B.  F.  Hunt.  Both 
are  now  bound  over,  but,  tho  delayed,  a  fight  must  follow  the 
language  used.  That  block-head  Moser  deserves  to  be  gibbetted 
for  his  nonsensical  law  against  Duelling,  as  he  now  obliges  men  to 


198  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

go  abroad  to  settle,  at  the  risk  of  life  from  climate,  what  might  be 
with  far  greater  convenience  done  at  home.  When  fighting  can  not 
be  avoided,  it  is  far  better  to  settle  the  business  without  delay  or  the 
inconveniences  of  journeying."  l  As  delay,  however,  stopped  this 
duel,  saved  the  life  of  one  or  the  lives  of  both,  possibly,  of  the  dis- 
tinguished combatants,  Dr.  Moser's  duelling  law  worked  most 
effectively.  Indeed,  there  could  hardly  be  cited  a  better  illustra- 
tion of  its  value;  for  Petigru  and  Hunt  not  only  did  not  fight,  but 
became  good  friends.  But  the  champion  of  Free  Schools,  the  legis- 
lator responsible  for  the  duelling  law  and  that  of  capital  punish- 
ment for  negro  murder,  belonged  to  an  earlier  and  more  demo- 
cratic day.  The  flood  of  slaves  which  had  poured  in  had  altered 
the  industrial  condition  and  was  destined  to  continue  to.  Numbers 
of  the  yeomanry  of  the  State  had  departed  for  the  new  lands  opened 
up  to  the  West  and  Southwest,  and  even  the  artisans  were  feeling 
the  competition  which  General  Thomas  Pinckney  had  written  of. 
The  amount  of  capital  invested  in  slaves  about  this  time,  or  shortly 
after,  must  have  been  nearly,  if  not  quite,  $60,000,000  2  in  South 
Carolina  alone.  By  them  was  cultivated  an  annually  increasing 
cotton  crop;  but  through  the  operation  of  the  tariff  laws,  while 
the  cost  of  their  maintenance  (and  the  injury  of  the  soil  from  the 
wasteful  style  of  agriculture  their  great  numbers  encouraged)  fell 
upon  the  South,  the  manufacturers  of  the  North  reaped  their  share 
of  the  profit.  Yet  it  was  a  society  still  strong  enough  to  produce 
men  of  great  diversity  of  talent.  The  accomplished  Stephen  Elliott 
has  been  alluded  to,  but  there  were  others.     Dr.  Holbrook3  and 

1  Original  in  possession  of  Miss  Ellen  H.  Jervey  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 

2W.  B.  Seabrook,  "View  of  the  Colored  Population,"  Vol.  16,  Ser.  2,  p.  28. 
Pamphlets,  Charleston  Library  Society  (No.  5).  The  value  of  slaves  in  South, 
$300,000,000,  South  Carolina  having  one-fifth  of  total. 

3  From  remarks  of  Louis  Agassiz  at  meeting  of  the  Natural  History  Society  of 
Boston  in  the  year  of  Holbrook's  death,  1871:  "I  well  remember  the  impression 
made  in  Europe  more  than  five  and  thirty  years  ago  by  his  work  on  the  North 


SOCIETY   IN   THE   TWENTIES  199 

John  Bachman,  working  along  lines  similar  to  those  of  the  great 
Audubon,  had  produced  work  entitling  them  to  consideration,  and, 
in  the  person  of  Robert  Mills,  the  State  had  a  son  who  as  the 
designer  of  the  Washington  and  Bunker  Hill  monuments  and 
the  Schuylkill  bridge  (the  arch  of  which  was  said  to  have  had  the 
greatest  span  of  that  day),1  was  an  architect  of  distinction.  Wash- 
ington Allston's  reputation  as  a  painter  was  established;  but  White 
was  not  without  merit,  and  Charles  Fraser  seems  to  have  been  more 
than  a  miniature  artist;  for  in  1816  his  drawings  were  published 
by  plates.  A  little  later  Major  Garden,  in  one  of  his  letters,  will 
tell  of  his  own  development  as  an  author.  At  all  events,  it  must 
have  been  an  attractive  society  to  move  in.  Robert  Mills,  in  his 
statistics  of  the  State,  published  about  this  time,  gives  an  inter- 
esting account  of  the  city  and  State.  From  this  work  we  find  that 
there  were  in  existence  at  Charleston  at  this  time,  3  Bible  societies 
and  3  Tract  societies,  5  Mission  societies,  employing  17  mission- 
aries, 11  Sunday-schools  with  1 261  pupils,  a  great  number  of  be- 
nevolent and  charitable  organizations,  an  orphan  house  endowed, 
but  supported  by  the  city  corporation  in  addition,  where  at  an 
annual  expenditure  of  $14,003.61  from  180  to  200  destitute  children 
were  cared  for  and  educated,  4  Free  Schools  established  under 
legislative  patronage,  with  salaries  of  $1200  allowed  each  teacher, 
and  4  established  Library  societies,  to  wit :  the  Charleston  Library 
Society,  established  in  1743,  and  comprising  in  spite  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  greatest  part  of  its  collection  in  1778  between  13  and 
14,000  volumes,  besides  a  number  of  fine  engravings,  etc.;  the 
Franklin  and  Ramsay  societies,  composed  chiefly  of  young  men, 

American  Reptiles.  ...  In  that  branch  of  investigation  Europe  had  at  that  time 
nothing  which  could  compare  with  it."  Memoir  of  John  Edwards  Holbrook, 
page  n,  Charleston  Library  Society.  Holbrook,  John  Edwards:  "North  Ameri- 
can Herpetology;  or  a  Description  of  the  Reptiles  inhabiting  the  United  States." 
Phila.,  1836,  in  —  4.  fig.  Brunet's  Manuel  du  libraire,  v.  5,  Paris,  1844. 
1  Mill,  "Statistics  of  South  Carolina,"  p.  467. 


200  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

founded  but  a  few  years  previous;  and  the  Apprentices  Library 
founded  in  1824  and  possessing  3000  volumes.  There  were  four 
daily  papers  printed  in  the  city,  —  the  City  Gazette,  the  Courier,  the 
Southern  Patriot  and  the  Charleston  Mercury;  three  weekly  jour- 
nals,— the  Southern  Intelligencer,  Catholic  Miscellany  and  Wesley  an 
Journal;  and  two  monthly, —  the  Gospel  Messenger,  an  Episcopal 
work,  and  the  Medical  Journal.  In  addition  to  this  the  author 
declares  that  every  public  house  had  a  reading  room  where  papers 
from  different  parts  of  the  Union  were  received,  and  private  estab- 
lishments, the  most  extensive  of  which  was  Walker's,  where  all 
styles  of  periodical  productions,  particularly  those  relating  to  Eng- 
lish literature,  were  found  in  attractive  variety.  The  Episcopalians 
had  4  places  of  worship,  the  Presbyterians  3,  the  Methodists  4, 
the  Roman  Catholics  2,  the  Baptists,  the  Congregationalists,  the 
Quakers,  the  French  Protestants,  the  German  Protestants,  the 
Unitarians  and  the  Jews,  1  each.  Of  the  interior  of  St.  Philip's 
Church,  completed  early  in  1700,  which  he  describes,  he  says  it 
"exhibits  more  of  design  in  its  arrangements  than  any  other  of 
our  ancient  buildings  ...  in  its  whole  length,  presents  an  ele- 
vation of  a  lofty  double  arcade  supporting  upon  an  entablature 
a  vaulted  ceiling  in  the  middle.  The  piers  are  ornamented  with 
fluted  Corinthian  pilasters  rising  to  the  top  of  the  arches,  the 
keystones  of  these  arches  are  sculptured  with  cherubim  in  relief; 
over  the  centre  arch  on  the  south  side  are  some  figures  in  heraldic 
form,  representing  the  infant  colony  imploring  the  protection  of 
the  king.  .  .  .  The  pillars  are  now  ornamented  on  their  face  with 
beautiful  pieces  of  monumental  sculpture,  some  of  them  with  bas- 
reliefs  and  some  with  full  figures  finely  executed  by  the  first  artists 
in  England  and  this  country."  The  organ,  he  tells  us,  "  is  an  ancient 
piece  of  furniture  imported  from  England,  and  which  had  been 
used  at  the  coronation  of  George  the  Second."  1    According  to 

1  Mill,  "  Statistics  of  South  Carolina,"  p.  405. 


SOCIETY   IN  THE   TWENTIES  201 

the  same  authority,  the  Baptist  Church  on  Church  Street  below 
Tradd,  still  in  existence,  "exhibits  the  best  specimen  of  correct 
taste  in  architecture  of  the  modern  buildings  in  this  city."  The 
theatre,  without  any  architectural  display  outwardly,  with  regard 
to  its  interior,  was  arranged  with  taste  and  "  richly  decorated." 
Mr.  Mills  estimated  that  there  were  from  1200  to  1500  mechanics, 
black  and  white,  in  the  city,  and  as  the  wage  of  the  latter  was  a  third 
more,  or  double  that  of  the  former,  the  tendency  must  have  been 
to  cut  down  the  work  of  that  estimable  class  of  citizens,  the  white 
mechanics.  What  proportion  of  these  mechanics  were  black,  and 
of  these  what  proportion  slaves,  would  not  be  easily  arrived  at. 
From  the  tax  returns  some  13  years  later,  there  were  between 
75  to  100  free  colored  mechanics  and  about  450  slave  mechanics. 
At  this  time,  1826,  there  were  probably  not  as  many.  In  addition 
to  the  shipping,  which  in  1824  was  88,125  tons>  IO  steamboats 
plied  between  the  city  and  Savannah  and  Augusta,  Cheraw, 
Georgetown  and  Columbia,  and  as  with  that  of  the  suburbs  the 
population  was  over  37,000,  the  place  was  the  metropolis  of  the 
South  Atlantic  coast. 


CHAPTER    VII 


SOCIETY 


In  December,  1826,  Judge  Smith  returned  to  the  United  States 
Senate.  The  youthful  rival,  who  in  1822  had  wrested  the  seat  from 
him,  had  now  been  in  the  body  three  years  and  certainly,  in  that 
time,  had  acquired  distinct  influence.  Despite  the  fact  that  Virginia 
was  represented  by  Randolph  and  Tazewell,  it  was  Hayne  who 
was  selected  to  present  to  the  Senate  the  petition  with  regard  to  the 
relief  of  the  daughter  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  There  were  various 
discussions  in  which  Smith  took  part;  but  in  February,  1827, 
a  memorial  was  presented  by  the  Colonization  Society,  which  both 
he  and  his  colleague  opposed,  and  by  their  efforts,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, their  respective  abilities  were  displayed.  There  is  nothing 
to  be  said  concerning  that  of  Smith,  for  it  was  not  an  utterance  to 
attract  attention  or  provoke  any  particular  thought;  but  the  two 
speeches  made  by  Hayne  were  distinctly  extraordinary,  and  one 
contained  probably  the  most  remarkable  expression  of  opinion 
ever  announced  by  him.  The  first  of  these  speeches  is  replete  with 
delicate  satire,  which  without  an  unpleasant  word  or  phrase  plays 
.lightly  upon  the  subject  of  the  memorial,  revealing  so  clearly  the 
incongruities  and  absurdities  that  the  introducer  of  the  paper 
complained  that  "the  whole  affair  had  been  placed  in  the  most 
glowing  colors  by  the  gentleman's  fancy  and  his  wit."  This  was 
a  fair  description  of  the  first  speech;  for  Hayne  had  accentuated 
every  fact  which  told  against  the  Society,  and  there  were  a  good 


SPEECH  AGAINST   THE   COLONIZATION   SOCIETY      203 

many,  with  regard  to  which  the  mere  telling  was  sufficient.  He 
declared  he  possessed,  and  he  submitted,  "the  evidence  that  the 
agents  of  the  Colonization  Society,  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  instead 
of  being  employed  in  peaceful  pursuits,  are  engaged  in  warlike 
enterprises;  that  the  colony  had  been  organized  into  military 
Corps;  and  that  under  their  gallant  leader,  the  Reverend  Dr. 
Ashmun,  they  have  made  war  upon  the  Spaniards  and  the  French, 
as  well  as  on  the  natives;  that  they  have  with  force  and  arms 
invaded  and  broken  up  several  establishments;  have  made  nu- 
merous captives,  and  in  short  are  proceeding,  as  all  such  colonies 
will  proceed,  with  a  high  hand  to  extend  their  influence  and  power 
'by  the  sword.'"  The  letters  of  this  representative  of  the  church 
militant  certainly  bore  out  Hayne's  statements;  while  such  un- 
happy allusions  as  "our  bloody  conflicts  with  the  natives,"  etc., 
were  used  by  him  with  telling  effect.  These  quotations  were 
interspersed  with  a  running  fire  of  good-humored  raillery.  "The 
prisoners  taken  and  put  to  labor  under  'superintendents'  (or  as 
we  should  call  them  overseers)  are  doubtless  found  to  be  very  con- 
venient 'helps'  in  a  colony  so  much  in  want  of  physical  strength 
and  productive  'labor.'  No  doubt,"  he  continues,  "they  are 
treated  as  kindly  as  such  'a  rude  and  ignorant  people'  ought  to 
be;  but  so  little  gratitude  do  they  evince  to  their  'deliverers'  that 
they  are  only  prevented  from  'effecting  their  escape'  by  the  'con- 
stant guardianship'  of  their  'superintendents.'" 

By  the  proceedings  of  the  Colonization  Society,  Hayne  then 
showed  that  it  had  approved,  while  the  Federal  government, 
whose  agent  he  also  was,  had  formally  disapproved,  of  much  re- 
ported by  Dr.  Ashmun.  With  a  parting  shot  at  "the  nice  dis- 
tinction, which  adopts  for  the  government  all  the  lawful  acts  of 
Dr.  Ashmun,  and  throws  all  the  rest  on  the  Colonization  Society," 
Hayne  expressed  his  hope,  on  account  of  the  lateness  of  the  hour, 
that  the  petition  would  be  laid  upon  the  table,  and  that  he  would 


204  •  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

make  such  a  motion  as  soon  as  gentlemen  who  may  desire  to  ex- 
plain their  views  have  done  so.  Objections  were  made  by  several 
senators,  and  Senator  Smith,  after  speaking  against  the  petition, 
moved  that  it  be  laid  upon  the  table.  But  the  Chair  ruled  that  it 
could  not  be  acted  upon  unless  signed  or  the  handwriting  averred, 
and  so  it  was  withdrawn.  Two  days  later  Senator  Ezekiel  Cham- 
bers, of  Maryland,  who  had  introduced  it,  presented  it  again,  signed 
by  "the  distinguished  individual  who  presided  over  the  society," 
and,  so  presenting,  proceeded  to  make  an  almost  pathetic  defence 
of  it.  He  complained  that  Senator  Hayne  had  denounced  the  plans 
of  the  Society  as  "visionary  and  chimerical";  while  he  (Mr.  C.) 
"indulged  the  hope  that  the  exalted  character  and  distinguished 
intelligence  of  the  individuals  who  had  been  connected  with  the 
Society  would  have  restrained  the  gentleman  from  this  sweeping 
denunciation.  If  that  could  not  rescue  the  Society  from  the 
reproach  of  the  senator  from  South  Carolina,  he  reminded  him 
of  the  countenance  it  had  received  from  nine  or  ten  States  of  this 
Union;  and  if  nothing  would  avert  the  determined  purpose  of  the 
senator  from  South  Carolina,  he  announced  that  he  was  him- 
self to  be  ranked  among  those  fascinated  by  the  'chimera.'" 
Declaring  that  it  was  not  the  time  or  the  occasion  to  go  into  the 
merits  of  these  transactions,  the  senator  thought  "  the  plain  narra- 
tive would  not  place  the  conduct  of  Dr.  Ashmun  in  a  view  so  cen- 
surable or  so  ridiculous  as  it  had  been  represented,"  and  he  ac- 
cordingly entered  upon  what  was  pretty  much  a  repetition  of  what 
Hayne  had  stated;  and  after  admitting  that  the  danger  had  been 
magnified  and  the  means  of  prevention  not  fully  justified,  and  the 
proceedings  in  some  cases  not  absolutely  necessary,  he  claimed 
he  had  presented  "  the  history  of  the  facts" ;  which,  he  complained, 
"  with  the  decorations  contributed  by  the  fancy  and  wit  of  the  gentle- 
man, have  been  held  up  to  the  Senate  as  a  spectacle  fit  not  only  to 
be  gravely  censured,  but  to  be  ridiculed." 


SPEECH  AGAINST  THE   COLONIZATION   SOCIETY 


205 


In  the  course  of  his  remarks,  Senator  Ezekiel  Chambers  took 
occasion  to  describe  the  free  colored  people,  as  he  judged  them 
to  be  in  the  slave  States,  evidently  from  those  he  had  seen  around 
him.  In  no  State  in  the  Union  were  they  as  numerous  as  in 
Maryland,  where,  according  to  the  census  of  1830,  there  were 
52,923,  or  more  than  one-ninth  of  the  population.  Why  he  speaks 
of  "your"  society,  "your"  country,  "your"  free  blacks,  when  he 
was  so  thoroughly  entitled  to  use  the  first  person  plural,  is  difficult 
to  understand  unless  he  was  an  adopted  citizen  of  the  State.  The 
following,  however,  are  in  part  the  terms  in  which  he  draws  his 
indictment  against  a  whole  people:  "That  part  of  the  population 
of  the  States  which  it  was  the  object  of  the  Society  to  remove  was 
a  degraded,  miserable  race  of  beings.  .  .  .  They  are  not  only  the 
drones  and  moths  of  your  society,  who  occupy  the  place  and  exclude 
the  presence  of  a  laboring,  hardy,  useful  and  moral  class  of  white 
men,  actuated  by  a  common  attachment  and  devotion  to  your 
country,  its  Constitution  and  its  laws  .  .  .  but  your  free  blacks 
exert  the  most  deleterious  influence  on  every  class  and  almost 
every  individual  in  society.  .  .  .  You  are  advised  by  intelligent 
and  discreet  men,  whose  lives  have  been  devoted  to  the  considera- 
tion of  this  subject,  that  the  plan  now  proposed  will  probably 
remove,  certainly  lessen,  these  evils.  ...  If  authority  be  required 
to  sanction  such  opinions,  you  have  it  in  the  deliberate  and  formal 
decisions  of  the  Legislatures  of  a  large  portion  of  the  States  of  the 
Union  —  States  in  which  slavery  is  allowed  and  States  in  which 
slavery  is  not  allowed."  In  conclusion,  he  asked,  "  Was  the  Senate 
prepared  to  unite  with  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  in  denounc- 
ing a  system  thus  recommended  to  their  consideration?"  1 

Hayne  was  not  particularly  occupied  with  Chambers;  but  he 
had  been  very  intent  upon  flushing  greater  game,  and  this  he  felt 
he  had  accomplished.     In  his  reply  he  charged  that  the  fine  parlia- 

1  Abridgment  of  Debates  of  Congress,  Vol.  9,  pp.  303  et  seq. 


206  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

mentary  hand  of  "  a  gentleman  high  in  office  (Mr.  Clay) "  had  been 
detected  by  him  in  a  resolution,  which  he  quoted,  and  upon  the 
adoption  of  which  he  asserted  he  had  become  "satisfied  that  this 
subject  would  at  length  come  before  Congress,  not  for  a  final  de- 
cision, but  in  such  a  form  as  to  obtain  if  possible  a  victory  without  a 
battle."  Then  after  declaring  that  "  as  to  the  persons  who  compose 
the  Society,"  there  were  many  for  whom  he  "  entertained  the  most 
unfeigned  respect,"  with  some  humor  he  divided  them  into  different 
classes,  and  it  was  pretty  evident  in  which  class  he  considered  Clay, 
although  no  name  was  mentioned.  Then  he  took  up  the  plans  of 
the  Society  and,  subjecting  them  to  a  searching  criticism,  revealed 
their  inadequacy.  He  ridiculed  the  "danger  from  less  than  two 
millions  of  ignorant  and  unarmed  people  scattered  over  an  immense 
region  and  without  the  means  of  concert  or  cooperation  in  a  popu- 
lation of  twelve  millions  of  brave,  intelligent  freemen."  Then  he 
touched  upon  a  point  which  must  have  been  pretty  generally  felt. 
"Sir,"  he  said,  "a  mistake  has  gone  abroad  on  this  subject,  which 
must  be  corrected  ...  an  opinion  prevails  in  some  portions  of 
the  Union  that  the  Southern  States  are  dependent  upon  them; 
that  they  cannot  maintain  their  existence  without  the  protection 
of  their  Northern  brethren;  and  hence  it  is,  Sir,  that  very  little 
scruple  is  felt  in  imposing  burdens  (by  tariffs  and  other  impositions) 
on  those  who  are  supposed  to  be  'in  mercy.'  Sir,  let  me  assure 
our  Northern  brethren  that  this  is  altogether  a  delusion.  We  feel 
ourselves  perfectly  adequate  to  our  own  protection,  and  we  feel 
no  apprehensions  whatever  except  from  their  unauthorized  and 
dangerous  intermeddling  with  our  institutions.  But  if  the  danger 
was  such  as  the  Colonization  Society  suppose,  what  are  we  to  say 
to  the  remedy  ? "  Then  citing  the  figures,  he  shows  the  extrava- 
gance of  the  claim  that  6000  blacks  could  be  transported  to  Africa 
at  a  cost  of  only  $20  a  piece,  when  official  documents  indicated 
that  the  thirty  so  far  transported  had  cost  the  government  $69,767.57, 


SPEECH   AGAINST  THE   COLONIZATION   SOCIETY      207 

and  that  by  no  possibility  could  the  cost  be  reduced  below  that  of 
$500  a  head ;  while  even  if  it  was  admitted  that  it  might  be  done  at 
one-fifth  that  expenditure,  nothing  short  of  60,000  despatched  per 
annum  could  accomplish  the  objects  of  the  Society,  and  that  would 
cost  at  least  $6,000,000  per  annum.  In  considering  this  portion 
of  Hayne's  argument,  we  must,  of  course,  remember  the  condition 
of  the  Union  at  that  time,  when  these  figures  meant  infinitely  more 
than  they  do  to-day.  Leaving  the  consideration  of  figures,  he 
proceeds  then  directly  to  the  most  remarkable  part  of  his  speech: 
"Sir,  this  whole  subject  is  grossly  misunderstood  and  egregiously 
misrepresented.  The  progress  of  time  and  events  is  providing  an 
effectual  remedy  for  the  evil,  concerning  which  some  gentlemen  are 
so  sensitive.  In  this  very  speech  (that  of  Senator  Chambers  evi- 
dently), facts  are  stated  that  ought  to  quiet  forever  the  minds  of  the 
most  philanthropic  on  this  subject  —  facts  drawn  from  official 
documents,  which  show  conclusively  that  the  relative  increase  for 
many  years  past  has  been  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  free  white  popu- 
lation, and  that  the  relative  proportion  of  the  colored  population 
whether  free  or  slave  is  certainly  diminishing  almost  in  arithmetical 
proportion."  Then  after  submitting  statistics  in  support  of  this 
claim,  he  continues:  "Thus,  Sir,  it  appears  that  the  Almighty,  in 
the  wise  order  of  his  providence,  has  marked  out  the  course  of  events 
which  will  not  only  remove  all  danger,  but  gradually  and  effectually, 
1  and  in  his  own  good  time, '  accomplish  our  deliverance  from  what 
gentlemen  are  pleased  to  consider  as  '  the  curse  of  the  land.'  The 
European  population  is  now  increasing  at  the  rate  of  4  per  cent, 
that  of  the  African  race  at  from  2  to  3  per  cent  (and  their  rate  of 
increase  constantly  diminishing).  The  former  will  be  doubled  in 
about  twenty-five  years,  the  latter  will  not  probably  be  doubled 
in  less  than  fifty  years.  While  this  process  is  going  on  the  colored 
classes  are  gradually  diffusing  themselves  throughout  the  country 
and  are  making  steady  advances  in  intelligence  and  refinement, 


208  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

and  if  half  the  zeal  were  displayed  in  bettering  their  condition  that 
is  now  wasted  in  the  vain  and  fruitless  effort  of  sending  them  abroad, 
their  intellectual  and  moral  improvement  would  be  steady  and 
rapid.  The  history  of  this  country  has  proved  that  when  the  rela- 
tive proportion  of  the  colored  population  to  the  white  is  greatly 
diminished,  slaves  cease  to  be  valuable  and  emancipation  follows 
of  course,  and  they  are  swallowed  up  in  the  common  mass.  Wher- 
ever free  labor  is  put  in  full  and  successful  operation,  slave  labor 
ceases  to  be  profitable.  It  is  true,  that  it  is  a  very  gradual  opera- 
tion and  that  it  must  be,  to  be  successful  or  desirable.  Time  and 
patience,  therefore,  are  only  wanting  to  effect  the  great  object 
which  gentlemen  profess  to  have  in  view,  and  to  effect  it  safely, 
prudently  and  in  the  only  mode  in  which  it  can  be  done,  without 
the  inevitable  ruin  of  all  parties  concerned.  And  yet  gentlemen, 
in  their  intemperate  zeal  in  what  is  miscalled  the  cause  of  justice 
and  humanity  are  attempting  to  anticipate  events,  and  insist  on 
reaping  the  fruit  at  once,  not  only  before  the  harvest  is  ripe,  but 
before  they  have  taken  the  pains  to  till  the  ground  or  to  sow  the 
seed."  Then  with  a  prescience  shared  with  none  of  his  contem- 
poraries, he  concludes,  "It  is  true,  Sir,  that  much  has  already 
been  done  to  create  difficulties,  and  our  only  apprehension  arises 
from  a  belief  that  a  reckless  perseverance  in  the  course  which  has 
been  for  some  time  pursued  (ostensibly  for  our  benefit,  but  in 
truth  to  our  injury)  may  lead  to  scenes  over  which  humanity  must 
weep." 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  remarkable  utterance,  the  petition,  after 
a  few  words  from  Benton  on  the  same  side,  was  laid  on  the  table. 
When  Chambers  spoke  of  the  free  blacks  as  "a  degraded  and 
miserable  race  of  beings,"  he  spoke  of  those  he  saw  above  Virginia, 
of  those  whose  condition  seemed  to  accord  with  those  of  Massachu- 
setts, as  indicated  by  the  report  of  her  legislative  committee ;  but 
when  Hayne  spoke  of  them  as  rising  in  refinement  and  intelligence, 


SPEECH  AGAINST  THE   COLONIZATION   SOCIETY 


209 


gradually  it  is  true,  but  surely,  he  was  borne  out  by  such  evidence 
as  was  afforded  by  the  Brown  Fellowship  Society  of  his  own  city 
and  the  general  run  of  house  slaves  to  be  met  with  in  the  South. 
We  see  that  he  believed  in  diffusion  as  the  solution,  a  slow  one 
but  a  sure  and  safe  one.  Nor  were  his  estimates  much  out  of  the 
way;  for  taking  from  1820  to  between  1840  and  1850,  the  twenty- 
five  years  in  which  Hayne  said  the  European  population  would 
double,  we  find  it  did;  and  if  the  African  race  doubled  in  forty, 
while  he  thought  it  would  "not  probably  be  doubled  in  less  than 
fifty  years,"  the  antagonization  of  Northern  and  Southern  sentiment, 
which  became  acute  in  five  years  from  the  time  of  this  speech  and 
finally  cleft  the  Union  in  twain,  had  not  a  little  to  do  in  effecting 
the  increase.  Smith  and  Hayne  had  been  on  the  same  side  on  the 
above ;  but  that  they  should  at  times  be  at  variance  was  not  sur- 
prising, and  when  Hayne  a  little  later  in  the  session,  as  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  Naval  Affairs,  brought  in  a  bill  for  the  gradual 
increase  of  the  navy,  and  supported  it  in  a  speech  for  which  he  was 
highly  complimented  by  Senators  Smith  of  Maryland  and  Robbins 
of  Rhode  Island,  Senator  Smith  of  South  Carolina  felt  himself 
obliged  to  oppose  it.  The  attitude  taken,  however,  by  the  two 
gentlemen  from  South  Carolina,  in  their  difference,  was  creditable 
to  them  both,  although  it  proved  not  reconcilable,  and  after  obtain- 
ing some  support  from  Chandler  of  Maine  and  Johnson  of  Ken- 
tucky, Senator  Smith  launched  a  determined  attack  upon  the 
provisions  of  the  bill  which  provided  for  a  naval  academy.  Un- 
fortunately for  him,  however,  assuming,  not  unnaturally,  that  as 
Senator  Harrison  had  risen  to  be  a  general,  without  special  military 
training,  he  would  scarcely  be  in  favor  of  such,  he  appealed  to  him 
in  a  flattering  strain.  But  the  caustic  reply  which  he  drew  from 
that  gentleman  indicated  that  Harrison  had  a  mind  and  temper 
of  his  own.  In  a  short  speech  full  of  pith,  Harrison  refused  to 
swallow  the  bait,  and  modestly  alluding  to  his  own  deficiencies  as 


210  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

additional  arguments  in  favor  of  the  bill,  wound  up  with  the 
declaration  that  he  considered  the  section  which  provided  for  a 
naval  academy  one  of  its  most  valuable  features  and  hoped  it 
would  meet  the  sanction  of  the  Senate.1  It  passed  the  Senate,  but 
when  struck  out  in  the  House,  on  its  return  to  the  Senate,  Van  Buren, 
who  had  previously  voted  for  it,  changed  his  vote  and,  as  amended 
by  the  House,  it  was  concurred  in  by  a  vote  of  22  to  21. 2  For  his 
equally  unsuccessful  efforts  with  regard  to  the  bill  for  an  uniform 
system  of  bankruptcy,  Hayne  was  highly  complimented  by  the 
City  Gazette,  at  that  time  an  Adams  paper,  which  spoke  of  the  bill 
as  "  introduced  in  the  Senate  by  Mr.  Hayne,  a  very  able  and  dis- 
tinguished leader  of  the  opposition,  and  by  Mr.  Webster,  the  cham- 
pion of  the  administration  in  the  House."  3  The  same  paper 
criticised  with  some  asperity  the  toasts  to  Hayne,  Van  Buren  and 
Cambreling  at  a  dinner  given  in  Charleston,  at  which  they  all 
attended  and  were  somewhat  extravagantly  lauded.  Calhoun, 
meanwhile,  had  been  cleared  4  by  the  investigation  which  he  had 
demanded  and  pending  which  he  had  declined  to  preside  over  the 
deliberations  of  the  Senate ;  but  now  he  was  definitely  committed 
to  absolute  opposition  to  the  efforts  of  the  tariff  men,  who  were 
preparing  for  another  move  at  the  next  session,  the  one  which  would 
bring  the  country  again  to  a  Presidential  year. 

1  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,  Vol.  9,  pp.  337-342. 

2  City  Gazette,  March  12,  1827.  *  Ibid.,  Jan.  29,  1827. 
4  Ibid.,  Feb.  20,  1827, 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CALHOUN  FORESEES  TROUBLE.  WEBSTER  ENTERS  THE  SENATE. 
BOSTON  CONFIDES  HER  MEMORIAL  AGAINST  HIGHER  DUTIES 
TO  HAYNE.  THE  CHARLESTON-HAMBURG  RAILROAD  BEGUN. 
"THE   DAMNED   TARIFF   AND   OUR   FRIEND   J.  Q." 

Between  the  close  of  the  session  of  1826-27  and  the  convening 
of  that  of  1827-28,  under  date  of  August  26, 1827,  Calhoun  wrote  a 
letter  to  his  most  intimate  confidant,  in  which  he  revealed  his  im- 
pressions of  political  conditions  as  they  had  taken  shape  in  his 
mind,  from  the  latter  part  of  1826  or  the  beginning  of  1827.  This 
letter  is  a  most  important  contribution  to  our  political  history, 
for  it  discloses  very  thoroughly  the  reasons  which  induced  Cal- 
houn to  abandon  his  broad  and  liberal  interpretation  of  the  Consti- 
tution, and  that  this  change  anticipated  his  breach  with  Jackson 
by  fully  four  years.  The  letter  is  to  James  Edward  Calhoun,  and  is 
in  part  as  follows:  "The  political  world  has  assumed  a  very  bois- 
terous appearance,  which  at  the  approaching  session  will  probably 
work  up  into  a  storm.  I  never  have  seen  such  abundant  elements 
of  discord,  much  greater  part  of  which  springs  by  an  almost  nec- 
essary consequence  out  of  the  late  Presidential  election.  There 
is  a  deep  and  settled  conviction  on  the  part  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
community,  not  only  that  Mr.  Adams  came  in  against  the  public 
voice,  but  that  it  was  effected  by  a  corrupt  understanding  with  Mr. 
Clay.  This  impression  so  weakens  the  administration  that  to 
sustain  themselves  the  most  dangerous  and  corrupt  means  have 
been  resorted  to,  as  is  generally  thought.     The  employment  of  such 


212  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

has  in  turn  greatly  inflamed  the  public  mind,  already  deeply  agi- 
tated by  the  circumstances  attending  the  election.  Among  the 
means  resorted  to  there  is  one  in  particular  that,  in  my  opinion, 
threatens  danger  to  the  Union  —  I  mean  that  of  arraying  the  great 
geographical  interests  of  the  Union  against  one  another.  The 
wisest  men  of  the  country  have  divided  in  opinion  how  far  Congress 
has  the  power,  and  admitting  they  possess  it,  how  far,  on  principle, 
encouragement  may  be  given  to  domestic  manufactures  as  con- 
nected with  the  great  consideration  of  the  defence  and  independence 
of  the  country.  But  whatever  may  be  the  diversity  of  opinion 
among  the  wise  and  patriotic,  as  to  the  discreet  exercise  of  this 
great  power  of  changing  the  capital  and  industry  of  the  country, 
there  cannot  among  such  be  any  doubt  that  the  power  itself  is  highly 
dangerous,  and  may  be  perverted  to  purposes  most  unjust  and  oppres- 
sive. Through  such  an  exercise  of  it  one  section  of  the  country 
may  really  be  made  tributary  to  another,  and  by  this  partial  action, 
artful  and  corrupt  politicians  may  use  nearly  half  of  the  wealth 
of  the  country  to  buy  up  partisans  in  order  to  acquire  or  retain 
power.  This  very  use  of  it,  many  and  they  highly  intelligent, 
below  the  heads  of  the  administration,  are  attempting  to  employ. 
About  a  year  ago  a  great  excitement  was  got  up  in  Boston  by  the 
capitalists,  with  a  view  professedly  to  give  an  increased  duty  on 
Woollens  for  their  protection.  A  bill  was  reported  to  the  House  of 
Representatives,  amounting  in  fact  to  a  prohibition,  and  after 
much  heat  passed  that  body.  It  came  to  the  Senate,  where 
it  was  laid  on  the  table  by  my  casting  vote.  Since  the  adjournment 
an  extensive  scheme,  originating,  as  it  is  thought,  with  those  in 
power,  has  been  got  up,  to  have  a  general  convention  of  the  manu- 
facturing interests  at  Harrisburg,  avowedly  to  devise  measures  for 
the  passage  of  this  bill,  and  thus  the  dangerous  example  is  set  of 
separate  representation  and  association  of  great  geographical  inter- 
ests to  promote  their  prosperity,  at  the  expense  of  other  interests 


CALHOUN   FORESEES  TROUBLE 


213 


unrepresented  and  fixed  in  another  section,  which  of  all  measures 
that  can  be  conceived  is  calculated  to  give  the  greatest  opportunity 
to  art  and  corruption,  and  make  two  of  one  nation.  How  far 
the  administration  is  involved  in  this  profligate  scheme,  time  will 
determine;  but  if  they  be,  the  curse  of  posterity  will  be  on  their 
head.  In  the  mean  time  the  South  has  commenced  with  remon- 
strating against  this  unjust  and  oppressive  attempt  to  sacrifice 
their  interest ;  and  I  do  trust  they  will  not  be  provoked  to  step  be- 
yond strict  constitutional  remedies.  I  have  given  a  fuller  view  on 
this  point,  as  I  am  of  the  impression  that  from  it  great  events 
will  spring.  It  must  lead  to  defeat  or  oppression  or  resistance, 
or  the  correction  of  what  perhaps  is  a  great  defect  in  our  system : 
that  the  separate  geographical  interests  are  not  sufficiently  guarded. 
This  for  yourself."  1 

Despite  the  insinuations  directed  against  Adams  and  Clay,  which 
the  close  intimacy  which  had  existed  between  them  and  Calhoun 
should  have  protected  them  against,  this  is  the  letter  of  a  great 
and  far-seeing  statesman.  It  was  not  very  long  after  this  that  he 
alluded  in  a  letter  to  Monroe  to  the  "  very  decided  part  "  he  "  had 
taken  "  in  the  Presidential  struggle  in  1816  in  favor  of  Monroe 
against  Crawford ;  and  his  services  to  the  country  in  so  doing  were 
not  small;  for  if  Calhoun  had  not  blocked  Crawford  in  1816,  it  is 
not  at  all  improbable,  but  extremely  probable,  that  with  the  check- 
ing of  the  centripetal  force  of  consolidation  there  would  have 
arisen  an  accelerated  centrifugal  force,  even  more  dangerous  to  the 
Federal  Republic.  Indeed,  the  ideal  policy  for  the  period  would 
seem  to  have  been,  internal  improvements,  to  facilitate  inter- 
course between  the  sections,  with  munitions  of  war  and  the  articles 
necessary  to  national  defence,  provided  at  home,  no  matter  at 
what  expense,  and  all  duties  on  other  articles  imposed  for  revenue 
alone.     This  may  be  stated  as  the  position  of  both  Hayne  and 

^'Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  pp.  249-251. 


214  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Calhoun,  and  that  Hayne's  position  was  well  known  is  illustrated 
by  an  incident  which  occurred  at  the  opening  of  the  session  of 
1827-28.  The  two  senators,  by  whom  Massachusetts  had  been  rep- 
resented in  the  United  States  Senate,  had  given  place  to  Nathaniel 
Silsbee  and  Daniel  Webster.  The  former  had  served  one  session, 
the  latter  was  just  entering.  Silsbee  was  against  higher  duties; 
Webster  wavering,  but  about  to  change  his  views.  The  merchants 
of  Boston,  however,  had  not  changed  theirs,  and  they  desired  them 
to  be  presented  to  the  Senate.  It  is  significant  of  the  impression 
which  Hayne  had  produced  on  the  country  at  large  by  his  opposition 
to  the  tariff  that,  represented  by  Daniel  Webster  and  Silsbee,  as 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  was,  yet  her  chief  city  chose  Hayne 
as  her  mouthpiece,  and  committed  to  him  her  memorial  to  Con- 
gress in  the  following  letter :  — 

"Boston,  Dec.  12,  1827. 
"  Sir  :  The  committee  of  the  citizens  of  Boston  and  the  vicinity 
opposed  to  an  increase  of  duties  on  imports  have  the  honor  here- 
with to  forward  to  your  care  a  memorial  on  this  important  subject, 
of  which  they  request  an  early  presentation  to  the  Senate,  and  such 
an  advocation  of  its  principles  as  to  you  shall  seem  called  for  by  the 
arguments  contained,  as  applied  to  the  interests  of  the  whole  na- 
tion. There  are,  Sir,  among  the  names  of  the  memorialists  those 
of  many  of  our  most  enlightened,  learned,  disinterested  citizens; 
and  not  a  few  of  the  most  intelligent,  judicious  and  reflecting  of 
our  manufacturers  both  of  cotton  and  woollens.  The  committee 
have  the  most  entire  conviction  that  the  best  interests  of  the  country 
are  involved  in  this  question  and  will  be  promoted  by  the  abandon- 
ment of  any  further  prosecution  of  this  system  of  high  duties. 
The  Committee  have  the  honor  to  be,  Sir, 
"With  great  respect 

"Your  very  humble  servants 

Nath.  Goddard. 

Lemuel  Shaw. 


CALHOUN   FORESEES  TROUBLE 


215 


Isaac  Winslow. 
William  Goddard. 
Enoch  Silsby. 
Thos.  W.  Ward. 
Edward  Cruft. 
Lot  Wheelwright. 
Henry  Lee. 
R.  D.  Shipherd. 
Samuel  Swett. 
William  Foster. 
Daniel  P.  Parker. 
Joseph  Baker. 
Samuel  C.  Gray. 

"  Committee. 


"The  Hon.  Robert  Y.  Hayne, 

"Washington."  l 


It  is  possible,  and  quite  probable,  that  Hayne  was  personally 
known  to  some  of  the  gentlemen  whose  names  appeared  on  the 
above-named  committee.  The  last  named,  Samuel  C.  Gray,2  was 
a  close  relative,  a  nephew  of  the  Honorable  William  Gray,  one  of 
Boston's  greatest  merchants,  on  whose  wharf  there  had  been  erected 
the  patent  railway  to  which  "  H  "  had  called  attention,  and  on  which 
there  had  been  based  the  suggestion,  in  182 1,  of  the  feasibility  of 
operating  a  railroad  between  Charleston  and  Augusta,  with  a  fork  to 
Columbia,  by  means  of  steam  power.  The  Honorable  William  Gray 
had  died  November  4, 1825,  as  appeared  by  notice  in  the  Charleston 
papers  soon  thereafter;  but  personal  knowledge  of  some  of  the 
committee  would  not  have  been  sufficient.  The  committing  the 
memorial  to  Hayne  was  a  distinct  recognition  of  the  force  he 
wielded  in  the  Senate,  his  national  reputation.     The  memorial 

1  Pamphlets,  De  Saussure  Collection,  No.  7,  p.  6,  Charleston  Library  Society. 
8  Letter  of  John  Chipman  Gray  of  Boston,  Aug.  17, 1907. 


216  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

is  a  strong  presentation,  more  of  a  protest  than  an  extended 
argument.  It  was  marked  by  breadth  and  patriotism.  One 
clause  certainly  deserves  reproduction,  it  is  such  a  clear,  succinct 
statement  of  the  whole  matter.  "If  the  Act  of  1816  be  regarded 
in  the  nature  of  a  compromise,  its  obligations  were  reciprocal ;  if 
the  nation  were  bound  to  continue  the  protection  then  offered,  the 
manufacturers  were  equally  bound  to  conform  to  the  system  then 
established.  Yet  within  a  very  short  period  that  provision  of  the 
law  was  repealed  by  which  the  duty  was  to  fall  to  20  per  cent, 
and  in  1824  it  was  further  raised  to  a  rate  nominally  exceeding 
33  per  cent,  making,  in  fact,  38  per  cent,  and  Congress  is  again 
called  upon  for  a  very  great  advance." 

While  the  business  men  of  Boston  were  preparing  their  protest 
against  any  further  increase  of  duties,  the  business  men  of  Charles- 
ton gathered  together  for  that  determined  effort  which  did  not 
again  cease  until  the  railroad,  from  their  city,  was  an  accomplished 
fact.  In  the  City  Gazette  of  December  7,  1827,  there  appeared 
the  following  report  of  that  important  meeting:  "By  a  call  of  the 
City  Council,  a  public  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  the  Parishes  of  St. 
Philip  and  St.  Michael  was  held  at  the  City  Hall  in  the  city  at  one 
o'clock  yesterday,  when  on  motion  of  James  L.  Petigru,  Esq.,  His 
Honor  the  Intendant  was  called  to  the  Chair  and  Edwin  P.  Starr 
appointed  Secretary.  The  Chairman  in  his  address  explained 
the  objects  of  the  meeting.  On  motion  of  James  L.  Petigru,  Esq., 
seconded  by  Colonel  Cross,  it  was  unanimously  resolved :  That  a 
committee  of  twelve  citizens  be  appointed  to  draft  a  memorial  to  our 
State  Legislature,  praying  that  a  survey  of  the  country  between  the 
Savannah  and  Ashley  rivers  may  be  made  with  a  view  to  a  canal 
that  will  connect  them  and  also  a  survey  of  the  country  between 
Augusta  and  Charleston  with  a  view  to  a  railroad,  and  that  meas- 
ures be  adopted  to  procure  as  early  as  possible  all  information,  esti- 
mates of  expense  &c.  touching  this  important  subject.     On  motion 


CALHOUN  FORESEES  TROUBLE 


217 


of  Colonel  Hunt  it  was  resolved  that  the  committee  to  be  appointed 
do  forthwith  report  to  the  meeting.  It  was  resolved  that  the  chair- 
man of  the  meeting  do  appoint  the  committee,  when  the  following 
gentlemen  were  so  appointed,  viz.,  James  L.  Petigru,  Esq.,  Colonel 
George  W.  Cross,  Colonel  B.  F.  Hunt,  John  Robinson,  Charles  Ed- 
monston,  Ker  Boyce,  Robert  Martin,  William  Washington,  Thomas 
Fleming,  Thomas  Napier,  James  Jervey,  &  J.  N.  Cardozo,  Esqs.  All 
the  gentlemen  being  present  they  retired ;  and  after  about  half  an 
hour's  absence  returned  and  Colonel  Hunt  read  the  memorial,  which 
was  unanimously  accepted  by  the  meeting." *  The  memorial  referred 
to  the  depressed  condition  of  the  commerce  of  Charleston ;  showed 
how  the  city  was  calculated  to  be  the  commercial  emporium  of  the 
large  and  productive  region  to  the  south  and  west,  as  far  as  the 
mountains,  and  even  beyond,  on  account  of  the  city's  vicinity  to  the 
sea,  and  the  facility  of  getting  to  sea  in  a  few  hours,  etc.,  and  ex- 
pressed the  belief  that  if  a  survey  was  made,  the  money  for  building 
could  be  raised.  Within  two  weeks  the  charter  was  granted  by  the 
Legislature;  but  not  being  full  enough  was  amended  by  an  act 
passed  January  30,  1828,  in  which  the  commissioners  empowered 
to  open  books  of  subscription  at  Columbia,  Camden,  Hamburg  and 
Charleston  were  named:  William  Law,  David  Ewart,  James 
Boatwright,  Thomas  Lang,  James  S.  Murray,  Charles  J.  Shannon, 
Christian  Brighthaupt,  Paul  Fitzsimons,  Samuel  L.  Watt,  Timothy 
Ford,  Stephen  Elliott  and  Rene  Godard.2  In  the  meantime  the 
State,  through  the  resolutions  submitted  by  the  special  committee, 
consisting  of  Messrs.  John  Ramsay,  S.  D.  Miller,  H.  Deas,  Alfred 
Huger,  D.  R.  Evans,  W.  B.  Seabrook  and  Catlet  Connor,  had  taken 
the  position :  "  That  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  a  com- 
pact between  the  people  of  the  different  States  with  each  other,  as 
separate  and  independent  sovereignties,  and  that  for  any  violation 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  7,  1827. 

2  Statutes  at  Large,  So.  Ca.,  Vol.  8,  pp.  354-355. 


218  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

of  the  letter  or  spirit  of  that  compact  by  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  it  is  not  only  the  right  of  the  people,  but  of  the  Legislatures, 
who  represent  them,  to  every  extent  not  limited,  to  remonstrate 
against  violations  of  the  fundamental  compact.  2.  That  the  acts 
of  Congress  passed  in  1816,  1820  and  1824,  known  by  the  name 
of  tariff  laws  by  which  manufactures  are  encouraged  under  the 
power  to  lay  imposts,  are  violations  of  the  Constitution  in  its  spirit 
and  ought  to  be  repealed.  3.  That  Congress  has  no  power  to 
construct  roads  and  canals  in  the  States  with  or  without  the  assent 
of  the  States  in  whose  limits  those  internal  improvements  are  made, 
the  authority  of  Congress  extending  no  further  than  to  pass  the 
necessary  and  proper  laws  to  carry  into  execution  their  enumerated 
powers.  4.  That  the  American  Colonization  Society  is  not  an 
object  of  national  interest,  and  that  Congress  has  no  power  in  any 
way  to  patronize  or  direct  appropriations  for  the  benefit  of  this 
or  any  other  society."  *  And  the  senators  and  representatives 
were  instructed  to  oppose  all  movements  in  these  directions. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  affairs  under  which  the  tariff  bill  of 
1828  was  brought  forward  for  action  in  Congress.  In  the  discussion 
of  details,  Benton  endeavored  to  induce  the  Senate  to  increase  the 
duty  on  indigo,  and  upon  the  opposition  of  both  Dicker  son  and 
Webster  declared  that "  the  friends  of  the  American  system  had  better 
assert  at  once  to  the  South  that  they  have  no  lot  or  portion  under 
that  system."  2  Hayne  declared  that  "  he  was  opposed  to  the  bill 
in  its  principles  as  well  as  in  its  details.  It  could  assume  no  shape 
which  would  make  it  acceptable  to  him  or  which  could  prevent  it 
from  operating  most  oppressively  on  his  constituents,  but  with  these 
views  he  had  determined  to  make  no  motion  to  amend  the  bill  in 
any  respect  whatever ;  but  when  such  motions  were  made  by  others 

1  Ramsay,  "  Resolution  on  State  Rights,"  Sweeny  &  Sims,  State  Printers,  Co- 
lumbia, South  Carolina.     At  the  Telescope  Press,  1827. 

2  "Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,"  Vol.  9,  pp.  596-603. 


CALHOUN  FORESEES   TROUBLE 


219 


and  he  was  compelled  to  vote  on  them,  he  knew  no  better  rule  than 
to  endeavor  to  make  the  bill  consistent  with  itself."  On  the  13th 
of  May,  after  a  speech  at  length  in  opposition  from  Hayne,  in  which 
he  "  entered  a  solemn  protest  against  it  as  a  partial,  unjust  and  un- 
constitutional measure,"  the  bill  passed  by  a  vote  of  26  to  21. 
Five  senators  from  New  England  voted  against  it,  seven  in  its 
favor.  Tennessee  and  Louisiana  gave  both  one  vote  for  and  one 
against,  the  remainder  of  the  senators  from  the  South  against; 
but  the  Middle  States  and  the  West  supported  it  with  a  solid  vote. 
Silsbee  of  Massachusetts  voted  against  it,  Webster  for  it.  Up  to 
the  last  minute,  according  to  John  Quincy  Adams,  Webster  hesi- 
tated, telling  the  President  that  it  would  depend  on  "his  and  his 
colleague  Silsbee's  vote,  and  he  expressed  some  doubt  how  he 
should  vote." 1  With  grim  humor,  the  President  records  another 
expression  of  opinion  of  the  annoyed  statesman,  "  There  was 
the  damned  tariff,  and  our  friend  J.  Q.  is  as  bad  upon  it  as  any  of 
the  rest."  2 

1  "  Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,"  Vol.  7,  p.  534. 
3  Ibid.,  Vol.  6,  pp.  275. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  TEMPER  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA  IN  1828.  HAYNE  REELECTED 
BY  UNANIMOUS  VOTE  TO  THE  SENATE.  HIS  FIRST  CLASH 
WITH    WEBSTER 

The  temper  of  the  South  at  this  time  has  been  accurately  stated 
by  Mr.  McMaster  in  his  declaration  that  the  citizens  of  the  states 
of  the  South,  and  especially  those  of  South  Carolina,  "  were  con- 
vinced, and  justly,  that  duties  laid  for  protection  bore  with  especial 
weight  on  the  slave-holding  States."  1  Proceeding,  he  observes: 
"When  the  twenty-eighth  of  June  came,  the  day  being  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  battle  of  Monmouth,  the  secessionists  seized  the  occasion 
and  celebrated  it  with  toasts  and  speeches  of  a  seditious  sort." 
What  particular  interest  the  people  of  South  Carolina  had  in  the 
battle  of  Monmouth  over  any  other  indecisive  battle  fought  at  the 
North,  one  is  at  a  loss  to  imagine ;  but  fortunately  the  genial  old 
Major  Garden,  who  has  been  before  quoted,  informs  us,  under  date 
of  June  3,  1828,  that  "the  Intendant  and  Wardens  of  Moultrie- 
ville  have  been  pleased  to  fix  on  me  to  deliver  an  eulogy  on  Moul- 
trie, on  the  spot  where  his  glories  were  achieved  on  Sullivan's 
Island,  on  the  28th  instant,  the  anniversary  of  the  day  on  which 
the  important  battle  was  fought  which  covered  him  with  glory." 
So  we  see  what  really  was  the  occasion  of  the  celebration.  After 
prophesying  that  the  tariff  of  1828  will  give  rise  to  a  "Blow," 
the  Major  adds:  "All  seem  to  be  of  one  mind  with  regard  to  the 
tariff  &  I  think  a  large  majority  in  favor  of  dismissing  our  present 

1  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  5,  pp.  254-258. 

220 


THE  TEMPER   OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA  IN    1828  221 

President  to  make  way  for  Jackson."  The  tariffs  had  made  the 
people  bitter.  In  the  three  years  from  1825  the  cotton  crop  had 
increased  from  569,240  bales  to  937,281.  The  price  had  held  up 
well  under  the  tariff  of  1816,  for  three  or  four  years,  and  what 
fall  there  was,  could  reasonably  be  accounted  for  from  increased 
production ;  but  after  a  temporary  spurt  upward  in  1825,  it  dropped 
to  about  half  the  value,  ranging  from  8  cents  to  14 J  cents  a  pound, 
and  in  this  year,  1828,  from  8  cents  to  nj  cents,  with  a  reduced 
crop  of  but  7 1 2,000 x  bales.  As  their  mainstay  went  down,  by  en- 
actment their  expenses  were  increased,  and  that,  they  believed,  in 
its  turn,  forced  down  the  price  of  their  produce;  for  certain  it  was 
that  with  25  per  cent  less  cotton  produced  under  the  tariff  of 
abominations,  the  price  had  still  declined.  The  city  of  Charleston, 
in  addition,  was  this  year  visited  by  an  affection  called  the  Dangue, 
with  regard  to  which  Major  Garden  says  in  one  of  his  letters  to 
Charles  Manigault :  "It  would  be  useless  to  attempt  an  account  of 
the  variety  of  its  symptoms ;  for  no  two  people  endured  a  similarity 
of  suffering.  It  is  said  that  Colonel  Drayton  was  found  in  his 
study  on  the  top  of  a  table  declaiming  loudly  against  the  tariff 
system."  Then  he  enters  into  an  account  of  his  own  experience, 
concluding  with  an  interesting  piece  of  news.  "During  the  entire 
summer  the  violence  of  disease  and  pressure  of  pecuniary  difficulty 
cast  a  gloom  over  our  entire  society  that  had  never  been  previously 
known.  ...  It  was  a  lucky  thing  for  me  that  immediately 
after  my  confinement  the  thought  struck  me  that  I  might  ad- 
vantageously put  into  shape  the  mass  of  Revolutionary  Anecdotes 
that  have  long  been  accumulating  on  my  hands.  I  accordingly  set 
seriously  about  it  and  in  a  little  time  completed  my  intended  publi- 
cation to  my  wish.  The  Press  is  now  in  labor  and  ready  to  bring 
forth  my  little  Bantling.     If  it  prove  sound  in  wind  and  limb, 

^'Memoir,"  the  Cotton  Plant  Pamphlets,  Vol.16,  Ser.  2,   p.  61,  Charleston 
Library  Society. 


222  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

I  trust  it  will  be  cherished  by  the  pap  of  public  favor ;  but  if  mis- 
shapen &  rickety,  I  should  be  sorry  that  my  friends  should  patronize 
an  abortion  that  I  would  blush  to  own.  .  .  .  We  are  all  Jackson 
men  here  and  anti-tariff  to  a  man.  The  excitement  is  very  great. 
Yankees  were  never  in  great  credit  here,  even  their  consummate 
impudence  could  not  gain  them  admission  into  society,  but 
now  they  are  in  worse  odor  than  ever.  My  poor  friend  General 
Pinckney  (Thomas)  said  let  me  but  see  Jackson  elected  &  I  shall  die 
contented;  but  the  stroke  of  death  was  too  near  at  hand,  & 
he  fell  amidst  the  most  sincere  regrets  of  an  admiring  people."  * 

But  if  the  genial,  if  somewhat  hasty,  old  Revolutionary  Major 
had  forgotten  the  wording  of  his  announced  visit  "to  the  North," 
only  two  years  previous,  "  to  wile  away  the  summer  months  among 
the  friends  of  our  more  youthful  days,  etc.,"  in  his  indiscriminate 
denunciation  of  "  Yankees  "  there  were  others  still  faithful.  The 
administration  was  not  without  friends  and  supporters  in  the  State. 
Two  of  the  daily  papers  of  Charleston,  the  City  Gazette  and  the 
Courier,  were  for  Adams  and  attacking  Jackson  and  Calhoun  with 
acerbity,  giving  that  brilliant  phrase  maker,  Henry  L.  Pinckney, 
all  he  could  do  to  explain  his  previous  assaults  upon  the  General. 
They  also  met  the  cry  against  the  "Yankees"  by  the  publication 
of  the  vote  before  mentioned,  with  the  further  showing  that  New 
England  had  been  against  the  increase  of  duties  by  22  to  16  in  the 
House.2 

Yet  while  Calhoun  was  assailed,  Hayne  was  unanimously  re- 
elected to  the  Senate,  the  first  time  in  more  than  a  decade  that  that 
had  happened  in  South  Carolina. 

Giving  Calhoun  all  credit  for  the  greatest  patriotism,  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  avoid  the  belief  that  he  realized  the  great  possible  advan- 
tage of  stepping  into  Crawford's  shoes.     He  might  have  thought 

1  Original  letter  in  possession  of  Miss  Ellen  H.  Jervey,  Charleston,  South 
Carolina.  2  City  Gazette,  July  18,  1828. 


THE  TEMPER   OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA  IN   1828  223 

that  standing  up  in  these  would  be  a  statesman  in  the  place  of  a 
paralyzed  politician ;  but  whatever  his  thoughts,  he  began  that 
careful  movement  in  this  year,  1828,  which  was  not  entirely  com- 
pleted until  183 1.  The  Exposition  was  launched,  although  the 
author  was  not  yet  announced  and  known  only  to  a  few  intimates ; 
meanwhile  in  the  United  States  Senate,  Senator  Smith  had  introduced 
the  protest  of  South  Carolina,  which  was  supported  by  both  of  her 
senators  in  brief  but  pointed  phrase.  "  Viewing  the  United  States 
as  one  country,"  Hayne  said,  "  the  people  of  the  South  might  almost 
be  considered  as  strangers  in  the  land  of  their  fathers.  The 
fruits  of  their  industry  had  from  the  policy  pursued  by  the  Federal 
Government  for  many  years  been  flowing  to  the  North  in  a  current, 
as  steady  and  undeviating  as  the  waters  of  the  great  Gulf;  and  as  the 
sources  of  our  prosperity  were  drying  up,  that  reciprocal  intercourse 
which  had  softened  asperities  and  bound  the  different  parts  of  the 
country  together  in  the  bonds  of  common  sympathy  and  affection 
had  in  a  great  measure  ceased.  That  close  and  intimate  com- 
munion, necessary  to  a  full  knowledge  of  each  other,  no  longer  ex- 
isted, and  in  its  place  there  was  springing  up  (it  is  useless  to  deny 
the  truth)  among  the  people  in  opposite  quarters  of  the  Union  a 
spirit  of  jealousy  and  distrust,  founded  on  a  settled  conviction,  on 
the  one  part,  that  they  are  the  victims  of  injustice,  and  on  the  other 
that  our  complaints,  if  not  groundless,  may  be  safely  disregarded. 
.  .  .  The  Legislature  of  South  Carolina  coming  directly  from  the 
people  have,  at  their  late  session,  with  a  unanimity  without  example, 
instructed  their  senators  to  lay  this  their  protest  before  you.  In 
obedience  to  that  command  my  colleague  and  myself  here  in  our 
places,  in  the  presence  of  the  representatives  of  the  several  States, 
and  in  the  face  of  the  whole  American  people,  solemnly  protest 
against  the  system  of  protecting  duties  as  'Unconstitutional, 
Oppressive  and  Unjust.'  "  ! 

1  "  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,"  Vol.  10,  p.  245. 


224  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

In  the  early  portion  of  the  session  of  1828-29,  Hayne  spoke  but 
seldom.  He  supported  with  his  vote  two  or  three  attempts  on  the 
part  of  his  colleague,  Senator  Smith,  to  effect  legislation,  which  were 
not  successful;  while  he  himself  carried  through,  without  opposi- 
tion, a  resolution  which,  as  chairman  of  the  committee  on  Naval 
Affairs,  it  fell  to  him  to  offer ;  but  until  the  close  of  the  session  he  did 
not  take  a  prominent  part  in  the  discussions  of  the  body.  Nor  does 
it  seem  from  a  scrutiny  of  the  debates  did  Webster.  The  latter 
had,  in  the  previous  year,  supported  the  tariff  of  1828 ;  but  Dicker- 
son,  as  chairman  of  the  committee  on  Manufactures,  had  been  more 
conspicuous.  Webster  had  reported  from  the  committee  on 
Judiciary  legislation  of  some  importance;  but  in  the  two  sessions 
he  had  attended,  had  hardly  taken  a  distinct  lead  in  any  matter  of 
moment.  In  the  closing  hours  of  this  Congress,  however,  he  did  so. 
On  February  27,  1829,  four  days  before  the  expiration  of  Congress, 
he  offered  a  resolution  in  reference  to  the  abortive  Panama  mission : 
"  Resolved  that  the  President  be  requested  to  communicate  to  the 
Senate  copies  of  the  instructions  given  to  the  Ministers  of  the 
United  States  to  the  Congress  of  Panama ;  and  of  the  communica- 
tions of  other  Governments  represented  at  that  Congress  to  the 
Government  of  the  United  States;  or  so  much  thereof  as  may 
be  communicated  without  detriment  to  the  public  interest."  * 
Tazewell  of  Virginia  immediately  questioned  the  object,  and 
Webster  declared  that  it  was  to  obtain  information  on  "a  highly 
interesting  subject."  Tazewell  still  objecting,  Webster  threw  out 
the  suggestion  that  the  publication  could  be  considered  as  an 
opportunity  for  the  retiring  President  to  vindicate  his  conduct, 
which  had  been  censured.  Hayne  then  interposed  and,  from  his 
familiarity  with  the  rules,  made  it  clear  that  the  resolution  was  not 
in  order,  and  moved  to  lay  it  on  the  table,  which,  despite  Webster's 
offer  to  amend  and  the  support  he  received  from  Benton  and 

1  "  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,"  Vol.  10,  pp.  249-257. 


THE   TEMPER   OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA  IN    1828  225 

McKinley,  was  ordered  by  a  vote  of  23  to  22.  On  the  3d  of  March 
the  instructions  were  transmitted  to  Congress  in  a  message  from 
the  President.  Tazewell  immediately  moved  a  reference  to  the 
committee  on  Foreign  Relations.  Chambers,  in  the  absence  of 
Webster,  moved  that  the  message  and  documents  be  printed, 
against  which  Tazewell  and  Berrien  spoke;  while  Holmes  sup- 
ported the  motion.  Hayne  replied  to  Holmes,  and  the  motion  to 
print  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  18  to  24.  At  the  extra  session,  im- 
mediately following  the  inauguration  of  Jackson,  Webster  suc- 
ceeded in  amending  the  wording  of  the  resolution  of  transference 
to  the  legislative  journal,  by  the  incorporation  therein  of  the  words 
"or  impropriety,"  so  that  it  should  read,  "such  transfer  not  to  be 
considered  either  expressive  of  an  opinion  on  the  part  of  the  Senate 
of  the  propriety  or  impropriety  of  the  said  message,  or  of  the 
language  used,  the  principles  avowed  or  the  measures  suggested  in 
said  instructions."  But  the  effort,  renewed,  to  have  the  message 
printed,  failed. 

This  controversy  has  been  so  fully  dealt  with,  because,  as  it 
will  appear  later,  there  was  an  intimate  connection  with  a  much 
more  famous  one.  It  excited  considerable  feeling.  In  regretting 
the  absence  of  Webster  in  the  early  part  of  the  discussion,  he  only 
arriving  in  time  to  vote  on  Hayne's  motion  to  table,  Chambers  had 
declared  that  he  "had  admired,  although  he  did  not  believe  he 
could  have  imitated,  the  conciliatory  temper  of  his  honorable  friend 
(Webster)."  Hayne,  in  reply,  had  observed  that  "the  President 
might  have  caused  the  instructions  to  be  printed  and  circulated 
without  sending  them  to  the  Senate,  and  he  could  have  had  no 
objection  to  his  doing  so ;  but  when  the  attempt  was  made  to  con- 
vert this  House  into  the  mere  instrument  for  the  accomplishment 
of  such  a  purpose,  he  felt  disposed  to  pause  and  inquire  into  the 
object  intended  to  be  accomplished  by  the  proceeding."  Chambers 
declared  that  he  was  unable  to  discover  the  force  of  the  objection 

Q 


226  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

urged  by  the  senator  from  South  Carolina;  but  from  the  vote  of 
24  to  18,  in  its  support,  it  is  evident  that  the  Senate  did.  For  his 
action  in  this  matter,  as  well  as  in  the  defeat  of  the  bill  for  the 
scientific  expedition  to  the  South  Seas,1  effected  in  conjunction 
with  Tazewell,  Hayne  incurred  the  enmity  of  John  Quincy  Adams, 
in  addition  to  giving  a  grievance  to  a  much  more  redoubtable 
adversary. 

1  "Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,"  Vol.  8,  p.  106. 


CHAPTER   X 

"  OUR  FRIEND  J.  Q."  HIS  VARYING  VIEWS  ON  VARIOUS  SUBJECTS. 
HIS  ESTIMATE  OF  WEBSTER  AND  OF  HAYNE  AND  OF  THE  GREAT 
DEBATE 

No  adequate  conception  can  be  formed  of  Robert  Y.  Hayne 
without  some  consideration  of  the  character  of  his  harshest  critic. 
John  Quincy  Adams  was  probably  the  most  original  character 
who  has  ever  attained  prominence  in  our  national  history.  In- 
tellectually, he  was  one  of  the  strongest  men  this  country  has  ever 
produced.  Passionate,  egotistical  and  ambitious,  he  was  at  the 
same  time  intensely  religious,  and  this  religious  exaltation  was 
sufficient  to  curb  both  his  flaming  passions  and  his  towering  am- 
bition, as  long  as  the  first-named  influence  was  moving  counter  to 
the  last  two ;  but  when  passion  and  religious  ecstasy  were  blended, 
he  became  no  longer  amenable  to  any  restraint.  Up  to  an  advanced 
age  he  was  an  athlete,  enjoying  that  exposure  to  the  risk  of  life 
and  limb  which  can  only  be  felt  by  those  endowed  with  strength 
and  courage;  and  if  he  could  have  looked  upon  others  with  more 
charity,  and  upon  himself  with  less  egotism,  he  might  have  been 
one  of  the  greatest  men  this  country  has  raised  to  the  Presidency; 
but  he  was  outstripped  and  superseded  by  men  distinctly  his  in- 
feriors, save  in  one  quality  he  lacked,  viz.,  the  attractive  force  of 
human  sympathy.  No  greater  contrast  can  be  found  than  that  of 
his  life,  as  his  public  actions  show  he  lived  it,  and  as  his  diary  in- 
dicates he  felt  it.  He  had  little  respect  for  Webster,  and  in  the 
Ninian  Edwards  investigation,  where  Webster  viewed  the  matter 
differently  from  Calhoun  and  Adams,  he  accuses  him  of  "a  base- 

227 


228  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

ness  in  it  that  revolts  me  beyond  measure."     Yet  this  is  the  man  he 
eulogizes  as  having  "demolished"  the  " malignant  Hayne." 

In  1819,  when  he  was  Secretary  of  State,  his  objection  to  the 
right  of  search  was  so  pronounced  that  he  describes  it  as  "a  new 
principle  of  the  law  of  nations  more  formidable  to  human  liberty 
than  the  slave  trade  itself."  *  And  at  this  date,  with  regard  to  the 
status  of  the  negro  in  the  United  States,  he  puts  himself  on  ground 
almost  identical  with  that  occupied  by  Hayne  in  his  great  speech 
against  the  Colonization  Society  in  1827.  In  his  diary,  in  the  spring 
of  1 81 9,  he  sets  out  his  views  concerning  the  Society  and  the  negroes 
as  follows:  "I  would  apprehend  the  Society,  like  all  fanatical 
associations,  is  intolerant,  will  push  and  intrigue  and  worry,  till  I 
shall  be  obliged  to  take  a  stand  and  appear  publicly  among  their 
opponents.  .  .  .  The  object  of  the  Society  ...  as  far  as  it 
would  be  practicable,  would  be  productive  of  more  evil  than  good. 
...  I  believe  that  the  mass  of  colored  people  who  may  be  re- 
moved to  Africa  by  the  Colonization  Society  will  suffer  more  and 
enjoy  less  than  they  would  should  they  remain  in  their  actual  con- 
dition in  the  United  States."  2  Yet  within  ten  months,  while  the 
halls  of  Congress  were  resounding  with  the  stormy  debate  over  the 
Missouri  question,  and,  as  the  National  Intelligencer  puts  it,  at  the 
time:  "The  balance  of  power  vibrates,  and  the  feelings  of  our 
politicians  vibrate  in  sympathy,"  he  writes :  "  Oh,  if  but  one  man 
could  arise  with  a  genius  capable  of  supporting  and  an  utterance 
capable  of  communicating  those  eternal  truths  that  belong  to  this 
question,  to  lay  bare  in  all  its  nakedness  that  outrage  upon  the 
goodness  of  God,  human  slavery,  now  is  the  time  and  the  occasion 
upon  which  such  a  man  would  perform  the  duties  of  an  angel  upon 
earth."  3  He  notes  almost  contemporaneously,  however,  that  Clay 
has  been  "laboring  for  two  years  to  get  up  a  new  party,"  4  and  the 

1  "Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,"  Vol.  4,  p.  354. 

a  Ibid.,  Vol.  4,  p.  356.  3  Ibid.,  Vol.  4,  p.  525.  *  Ibid.,  Vol.  4,  p.  529. 


"OUR   FRIEND    J.    Q."  229 

thought  suggests  itself  to  him  of  an  "  extirpation  of  the  African  race 
by  the  gradually  bleaching  process  of  an  intermixture  where  the 
white  portion  is  already  so  predominant."  l  But  the  flame  of 
sectionalism  sank  as  suddenly  as  it  arose.  Monroe  was  renominated 
without  any  opposition,  and  the  legislature  of  his  own  State,  in 
the  report  of  its  committee  on  the  free  colored  people  of  Massa- 
chusetts, dispelled  this  angelic  dream  and  drove  him  back  to  the 
association  of  slave  holders,  and  finally  the  Presidency,  under  the 
dominating  influence  of  Clay.  But  as  late  as  April  19,  1828,  there 
seem  to  have  been  pleasant  relations  between  Hayne  and  Adams,2 
and  not  until  his  defeat  by  Jackson  in  1828  does  there  appear  the 
least  criticism  of  Hayne,  the  leader  of  the  opposition  in  the  Senate, 
during  the  entire  period  of  the  administration  then  coming  to  an 
end.  Then,  however,  we  are  informed  of  "meetings  at  Hayne' s 
lodgings  of  a  violent  character,  as  threatening  disunion."  3  The 
characterization,  when  subsequently  brought  to  Hayne's  notice, 
elicited  a  denial;  but  when  he  later  blocked  Webster's  move  in 
behalf  of  the  vindication  of  the  President  with  regard  to  the  Panama 
mission,  Adams's  bile  rises  against  the  South  Carolinian.  He  does 
not  allude  to  that,  but  makes  the  action  of  Hayne  with  regard  to 
the  bill  for  the  scientific  expedition  to  the  South  Seas  the  occasion 
for  strictures  indulged  immediately  after  the  final  defeat  of  the 
effort  to  have  his  message  relating  to  the  Panama  mission  printed. 
On  that  date  he  complains  that  the  bill  for  the  scientific  expedi- 
tion was  "defeated  by  Robert  Y.  Hayne  of  South  Carolina,  chair- 
man of  the  Naval  Committee  and  L.  W.  Tazewell  of  Virginia, 
both  men  of  some  talents ;  but  whose  sense  of  justice,  of  patriotism 
and  truth  is  swallowed  up  by  the  passions  of  party  combining  in 
both  with  overbearing  arrogance,  rancorous  tempers  and  in  Taze- 
well, never  dying  personal  hatred  of  me."  4    An  examination  of  this 

1  Ibid.,  Vol.  4,  p.  531.  3  Ibid.,  Vol.  8,  p.  83. 

2  Ibid.,  Vol.  7,  p.  513.  4  Ibid.,  Vol.  8,  p.  106. 


230  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

matter,  as  it  appears  in  the  "  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Con- 
gressf '  shows  nothing  in  Hayne's  speech  which  could  by  any  rational 
being  be  twisted  into  an  unjust  or  unpatriotic  declaration;  while  the 
claims  made  by  him  in  his  temperate  utterance  were  so  direct  and 
positive,  and  so  easy  of  refutation,  if  untrue,  that  it  is  impossible 
to  imagine  that  they  were  other  than  exactly  as  stated.  They  were, 
in  brief,  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  had  asked  for  an  appro- 
priation of  $50,000,  for  which  a  bill  had  been  promptly  drafted 
by  the  Naval  Committee  and  reported,  but  that  Congress  had 
failed  to  act  upon  it.  Then  the  House  had  passed  a  resolution  on 
the  subject,  which  had  never  been  sent  to  the  Senate;  and  on  that 
the  Secretary  had  started  to  incur  expenses  not  only  without  any 
legal  authority,  but  apparently  beyond  even  the  amount  contem- 
plated by  the  bills,  which  had  failed  to  pass.  Hayne  seems  to  have 
defeated  this  bill,  simply  by  securing  the  passage  of  a  resolution, 
without  a  dissenting  voice,  requesting  the  President  for  infor- 
mation. 

In  the  session  of  1829-30  Hayne  fully  maintained  the  influential 
position  which  he  had  held  from  the  time  of  his  entrance  into  that 
body.  In  the  opening  days  he  exemplified  this  in  the  debate  on 
the  bill,  explanatory  of  the  act  to  reduce  and  fix  the  military 
peace  establishment.  His  reply  to  Smith  of  Maryland  and 
Holmes  of  Maine  is  as  clear-cut  and  concise  an  argument  as  can 
be  made  concerning  the  value  of  a  preamble  for  an  act;  while  its 
application  to  the  recent  tariff  bill  drew  an  inadequate  answer 
from  Dickerson.  Webster  does  not  seem  to  have  participated  in 
this  discussion  at  all.  Incontestably  he  had  not  since  his  entrance 
in  1827  wielded  that  influence  in  the  Senate  he  not  unnaturally 
thought  his  due.  He  must  have  realized  the  inability  of  the  mem- 
bers of  his  own  faction  to  cope  with  Hayne.  He  bore  the  latter  a 
slight  grudge.  He  admitted  that  in  his  utterly  unnecessary  denial 
of  the  fact  in  his  great  speech.     He  therefore  seized  upon  the 


"OUR  FRIEND   J.   Q." 

occasion  presented  by  Senator  Foote's  resolution  to  inquire-dnto  the 
expediency  of  suspending  the  sales  of  the  public  lands,  to  pre- 
cipitate an  oratorical  duel,  and  with  the  genius  of  a  strategist  he 
selected  a  position  from  which,  if  his  assault  failed,  he  could  swiftly 
mount  to  the  unassailable  peak  of  his  apotheosis  to  the  Union. 
It  was  a  magnificent  conception,  splendidly  executed ;  but  the  fi& 
tion  that  in  the  debate  he  demolished  his  adversary,  is  unworthy 
of  the  great  country  that  produced  them  both,  and  the  section  that 
finally  triumphed  in  the  ultima  ratio  regum,  with  which  it  was 
thrashed  out.  Of  course  if  a  peroration  is  all  of  a  speech,  and 
nothing  else  is  to  be  considered,  then  it  must  be  admitted  that 
Webster,  who  caught  and  crystallized  into  one  glowing  passage 
the  aspirations  of  his  countrymen  (as  they  had  never  before  nor 
have  ever  since  been  portrayed),  accomplished  his  aim;  but  as 
three  speeches  were  delivered  by  each  of  the  speakers,  one  pero- 
ration can  scarcely  suffice  for  all.  The  truth  is,  that  the  public 
has  been  unwilling  to  consider  this  contest  fairly,  and  accordingly, 
the  most  magnanimous  motives  have  been  assigned  to  Webster. 
Parton,  who  is  a  very  free  quoter,  credits  Webster  with  the  asser- 
tion :  "The  whole  debate  was  a  matter  of  accident.  I  had  left  the 
court  pretty  late  in  the  day  and  went  into  the  Senate  with  my  court 
papers  under  my  arm  just  to  see  what  was  passing.  It  so  happened 
that  Mr.  Hayne  very  soon  rose  in  his  first  speech.  I  did  not  like 
it  and  my  friends  liked  it  less." 1  Mr.  Benton  says :  "  Mr.  Webster 
came  into  the  field  upon  choice  and  deliberation,  well  feeling 
the  grandeur  of  the  occasion,  and  profoundly  studying  his  part. 
He  had  observed  during  the  summer  the  signs  in  South  Carolina 
and  marked  the  proceedings  of  some  public  meetings  unfriendly 
to  the  Union,  and  which  he  ran  back  to  the  incubation  of  Mr. 
Calhoun.  He  became  the  champion  of  the  Constitution  and  of  the 
Union,  choosing  his  time  and  occasion,  hanging  his  speech  upon 

1  Parton,  "Life  of  Jackson,"  Vol.  3,  p.  281. 


232 


ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 


a  disputediinoiion  with  which  it  had  nothing  to  do,  and  which  was 
immediafefcl filost  sight  of  in  the  blaze  and  expansion  of  a  great 
national  discussion;  himself  armed  and  equipped  for  the  contest 
glittering  in  the  panoply  of  every  species  of  parliamentary  and 
forensic  weapon,  —  solid  argument,  playful  wit,  biting  sarcasm, 
classic  allusion,  and  striking  at  a  new  doctrine  of  South  Carolina 
origin,  in  which  Hayne  was  not  implicated ;  but  his  friends  were  — 
and  that  made  him  their  defender."  *  Benton  might  have  con- 
sidered nullification  "a  new  doctrine  of  South  Carolina  origin"; 
but  Webster  from  New  England  knew  its  origin.  That  Hayne 
knew  as  much  about  its  origin  as  his  speeches  indicated,  was  some- 
thing of  a  surprise  to  Webster. 

But  why  should  there  be  such  an  effort  to  find  out  a  motive  for 
Webster's  attack,  when  he  inadvertently  but  distinctly  states  it 
himself,  in  his  greatest  effort:  " There  is  nothing  here,  Sir,  which 
gives  me  the  slightest  uneasiness,  neither  fear  nor  anger,  nor  that 
—  which  is  sometimes  more  troublesome  than  either  —  the  con- 
sciousness of  having  been  in  the  wrong.  .  .  .  Nothing  original, 
for  I  had  not  the  slightest  feeling  of  disrespect  or  unkindness  tow- 
ards the  honorable  member  some  passages  it  is  true  had  occurred 
since  our  acquaintance  in  this  body  which  I  could  have  wished 
otherwise;  but  I  had  used  philosophy  and  forgotten  them.1'' 2  His 
very  claim  that  he  had  forgotten,  furnished  the  proof  of  his  remem- 
brance of  the  way  barred  to  the  vindication  of  President  Adams, 
which,  as  the  champion  of  the  administration,  he  had  failed  to 
force,  and  also  by  whom  it  had  been  barred.  Perhaps  the  fairest 
discussion  that  has  ever  been  written  of  the  great  debate  between 
Hayne  and  Webster  is  the  description  in  "The  Sectional  Struggle," 
by  Cicero  W.  Harris;   but  some  extracts  from  the  "Memoirs  of 

1  Benton,  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  Vol.  2,  p.  187. 

2  "Webster's  Second  Speech,  Debate  on  Foote's  Resolution."  Printed  by  A.  E. 
Miller,  1830,  So.  Ca.  Hist.  Society,  p.  38.     (Italicized  by  author.) 


"OUR   FRIEND    J.    Q."  233 

John  Quincy  Adams"  will  illustrate  the  growth  of  the  legend  of 
the  "demolition"  of  Hayne.  We  will  find  the  Northern  senators 
all  (perfectly  free  from  that  "baseness,"  which  in  Webster,  on  a 
previous  occasion,  had  so  revolted  Adams)  animated  to  the  lofti- 
est eloquence;  while  Hayne  and  Benton,  being  actuated  by  low 
motives,  strive  desperately,  only  to  their  own  undoing.  "  The 
assault  was  so  rancorous  and  desperate  that  it  roused  the  spirit  of 
the  East,  and  Webster  and  Sprague  have  made  eloquent  speeches 
in  its  defence.  Holmes  finished  a  powerful  speech  to-day."  * 
And  a  little  later:  "The  National  Intelligencer  had  this  day  half 
a  recent  speech  of  Mr.  Webster,  which  has  been  much  celebrated 
in  reply  to  a  violent  invective  against  him  by  R.  Y.  Hayne.  It 
filled  almost  two  sides  of  the  paper,  and  the  other  half  is  to  come 
on  Thursday.  It  is  defensive  of  himself  and  New  England;  but 
carries  the  war  into  the  enemies'  territory.  It  is  a  remarkable 
instance  of  readiness  in  debate.  A  reply  of  at  least  four  hours  to 
a  speech  of  equal  length.  It  demolishes  the  whole  fabric  of 
Hayne' s  speech,  so  that  it  leaves  scarcely  the  wreck  to  be  seen." 
But  when  the  "malignant"  Hayne  had  been  removed  from  the 
stage,  and  Webster  on  a  later  occasion  was  developing  with  the 
greatest  care  the  same  argument,  the  keen  intellect  of  the  ex- 
President  disposes  of  him  in  this  fashion:  "Mr.  Webster  is  a  very 
handsome  speaker,  but  he  over-labored  a  point  as  plain  as  day, 
and  he  hung  his  cause  upon  a  broken  hinge  in  maintaining  that  a 
government  is  not  a  compact."  2 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  a  week  or  two  prior  to  the  great 
debate  between  Hayne  and  Webster,  the  latter  had  presented  the 
memorial  of  the  South  Carolina  Canal  and  Railroad  to  Congress, 
praying  a  subscription  from  the  government  for  2500  shares,  which 
he  very  handsomely  explained  had  been  confided  to  his  hands  from 

1  "Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,"  Vol.  8,  pp.  190-193. 

2  Ibid.,  Vol.  8,  pp.  512-526. 


234  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

no  disrespect  to  the  two  senators  from  South  Carolina;  but  solely 
because  the  petitioners  were  unwilling  to  trespass  upon  the  reluc- 
tance of  these  gentlemen  to  present  petitions  which  their  opinions 
as  to  the  constitutional  powers  of  government  would  cause  them 
to  oppose. 


CHAPTER     XI 

hayne's  speech  on  the  public  lands.    Webster's  assault 

upon  hayne 

Speaking  strictly  to  Foote's  resolution  concerning  the  public 
lands,  Hayne  had  opposed  the  accumulation  of  a  fund  by  the  sale 
of  such  for  that  purpose;  but  had  urged  the  granting  of  them  to 
the  States  "on  such  terms  and  conditions  as  may  fully  indemnify 
us  for  the  cost  of  the  original  purchase  and  all  the  trouble  and  ex- 
pense to  which  we  may  have  been  put  on  their  account."  He 
stated  that  he  was  opposed  to  the  policy  of  the  public  land  being 
"reserved  as  a  permanent  fund  for  revenue";  he  feared  that  "an 
immense  national  Treasury  would  be  a  fund  for  corruption";  he 
believed  that  "the  very  life  of  our  system  is  the  independence  of  the 
States  and  that  there  is  no  evil  more  to  be  deprecated  than  the 
consolidation  of  this  Government." 

Here  we  have  an  argument  proceeding  entirely  along  lines  of 
national  policy,  the  best  way  of  using  the  public  lands.  "  Perhaps, 
Sir,"  he  continues,  "the  lands  ought  not  to  be  entirely  relinquished 
to  any  State,  until  she  shall  have  made  considerable  advances  in 
population  and  settlement.  Ohio  has  probably  reached  that  con- 
dition."    Could  anything  be  more  temperate? 

But  he  who  is  determined  to  provoke  a  contest  or  a  controversy 
never  troubles  himself  very  much  about  a  cause,  and  Webster, 
having  decided  to  attack  Hayne,  made  this  his  occasion.  "  Quite 
indifferent,"  as  he  admits,  concerning  the  passage  of  the  resolu- 
tion, "yet,"  as  he  claims,  "opinions  were  expressed  by  the  gentle- 

235 


236  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

man  from  South  Carolina  so  widely  different  from  my  own  that  I 
am  not  willing  to  let  the  occasion  pass  without  some  reply." 

With  this  opening  he  proceeded  to  discuss  some  of  these  opinions, 
stating  them  to  suit  the  assault  he  proposed  to  make  upon  them, 
and  declared  that  "the  Honorable  Gentleman  spoke  of  the  whole 
course  and  policy  of  the  Government  towards  those  who  have 
purchased  and  settled  the  public  lands;  and  seemed  to  think  the 
policy  wrong.  He  held  it  to  have  been  from  the  first  hard  and 
rigorous;  he  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  United  States  had  acted 
towards  those  who  had  subdued  the  Western  wilderness  in  the 
spirit  of  a  step-mother;  that  the  public  domain  had  been  im- 
properly regarded  as  a  source  of  revenue ;  and  that  we  had  rigidly 
compelled  payment  for  that  which  ought  to  have  been  given  away." 

This  was  a  misstatement  of  Hayne's  contention,  which  was  that 
"there  were  two  great  parties  in  this  country  who  entertained  very 
opposite  opinions"  in  relation  to  the  public  lands.  One,  that 
"  Congress  has  pursued  not  only  a  highly  just  and  liberal  course, 
but  one  of  extraordinary  kindness  and  indulgence  .  .  .  ;  while 
the  other  party,  embracing  the  entire  West,  insist  that  we  have 
treated  them  from  the  beginning,  not  like  heirs  of  the  Estate,  but  in 
the  spirit  of  a  hard  taskmaster,  resolved  to  promote  our  selfish 
interest  from  the  fruit  of  their  labor."  Stating  what  the  policy  was, 
in  fact,  he  had  declared  it  was  "  selling  out  from  time  to  time  certain 
portions  of  the  public  lands  for  the  highest  price  that  could  possibly 
be  obtained  for  them  in  open  market,"  * —  a  policy  which  he  declared 
to  be  different  from  that  of  every  other  nation  that  had  ever  at- 
tempted to  establish  colonies  or  create  States.  Then  alluding  to  the 
policy  under  which  he  claimed  the  whole  Atlantic  coast  had  been 
settled,  he  had  announced  it  as  based  upon  "the  belief  that  the 
conquest  of  a  new  country,  the  driving  out  the  '  savage  beasts  and 

1  "The  Several  Speeches  on  Foote's  Resolution,  by  Hayne  and  Webster." 
Printed  by  A.  E.  Miller,  1830,  So.  Ca.  Hist.  Society,  Hayne's  first  speech,  p.  4. 


THE   PUBLIC   LANDS   DISCUSSED  237 

still  more  savage  men,'  cutting  down  and  subduing  the  forests  and 
encountering  all  the  hardships  and  privations  necessarily  incident 
to  the  conversion  of  the  wilderness  into  cultivated  fields  was  worth 
the  fee  simple  of  the  soil,"  and  "submitted  to  the  candid  considera- 
tion of  gentlemen,  whether  the  policy  so  diametrically  opposed  to 
this,  which  has  been  invariably  pursued  by  the  United  States 
towards  the  new  States  in  the  West,  has  been  quite  so  just  as  we 
have  been  accustomed  to  believe?"  * 

Can  any  one,  in  whom  the  sense  of  justice  is  even  dormant,  assert 
that  this  is  what  Webster  stated  as  Hayne's  opinion  ?  But  when, 
looking  farther  into  Hayne's  speech,  we  find  that  he  distinctly 
suggests,  "The  relinquishment  may  be  made  by  a  sale  to  the  State 
at  a  fixed  price,  which  I  will  not  say  should  not  be  nominal ;  but  I 
certainly  should  not  be  disposed  to  fix  the  amount  so  high  as  to 
keep  the  States  for  any  length  of  time  in  debt  to  the  United  States,"  2 
how  can  any  reasonable  being  believe  that  Webster  understood 
Hayne  to  contend,  as  he  claimed  he  did,  that  "  we  had  rigidly  com- 
pelled payment  for  that  which  ought  to  have  been  given  away  ?  "3 

Having  erected,  however,  his  man  of  straw,  Webster  proceeded 
to  knock  it  down.  He  denied  that  there  had  been  anything  harsh 
or  severe  in  the  policy  of  the  government  towards  the  new  States 
of  the  West,  and  after  reiterating  the  charge  that  the  Honorable 
Member  thinks  the  lands  should  have  been  given  away,  he  con- 
siders the  statement  that  "the  administration  of  a  fixed  revenue 
only  consolidates  the  government  and  corrupts  the  people." 
Even  this  is  not  a  correct  statement  of  Hayne's  position ;  but  it  is 
not  so  glaringly  incorrect  as  the  first,  and  on  it  Webster  drives  in  a 
powerful  argument,  based  upon  the  letter  in  which  the  framers  of 
the  Constitution  submitted  that  instrument  to  the  country.    In- 

1  Ibid.,  p.  5. 
3  Ibid.,  p.  9. 
*  Ibid.,  Webster's  first  speech,  p.  11. 


238  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

cidentally,  he  charges  that  ''persons  in  the  part  of  the  country 
from  which  the  Honorable  Member  comes,  speak  of  the  Union  in 
terms  of  indifference  or  even  disparagement."  Passing  on  from 
this,  however,  he  deliberately  asserts :  "I  come  now,  Mr.  President, 
to  that  part  of  the  gentleman's  speech  which  has  been  the  main 
occasion  of  my  addressing  the  Senate.  The  East !  The  obnoxious, 
the  rebuked,  the  always  reproached  East !  We  have  come  in, 
Sir,  on  this  debate,  for  even  more  than  a  common  share  of  accusa- 
tion and  attack."  But  he  realizes  that  this  is  too  full  a  draft  for 
any  one  to  swallow,  so  quickly  adds :  "If  the  Honorable  Member 
from  South  Carolina  was  not  our  original  accuser,  he  has  yet  re- 
cited the  indictment  against  us  with  the  air  and  tone  of  a  public 
prosecutor.  .  .  .  And  the  cause  of  all  this  narrow  and  selfish 
policy,  the  gentleman  finds  in  the  tariff  —  I  think  he  called 
it  the  accursed  policy  of  the  tariff."  In  this  partly  playful  mis- 
statement, at  the  expense  of  the  experienced  debater  before  him, 
Webster  ventured  on  dangerous  ground.  But  from  it  he  passed  to 
other  points,  taking  occasion  to  compare  the  free  States  with  the 
slave  States,  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter.  In  conclusion,  he 
stated  that  he  had  "felt  it  his  duty  to  vindicate  the  State  he  rep- 
resented from  charges  and  imputations  on  her  public  character  and 
conduct,  which  he  knew  to  be  undeserved  and  unfounded." 

It  was  a  clever,  disingenuous,  provocative  speech,  in  which  the 
distinct  statement  is  made  that  "the  main  occasion"  for  it  was  the 
charge  made  against  the  East  of  a  "narrow  and  selfish  policy  of 
endeavoring  to  restrain  emigration  to  the  West  and  of  maintaining 
a  steady  opposition  to  Western  measures  and  Western  interests. " 
By  easy  gradations  he  passed  from  the  East  to  New  England,  and 
later  "  the  State  he  represented,"  with  regard  to  which,  not  one  word 
can  be  found  in  Hayne's  speech.  It  was  an  irritating  speech,  and 
doubtless  meant  to  be.  It  was  to  tempt  the  one  attacked  to  a  reply, 
after  which  he  would  be  overwhelmed  by  the  real  speech,  with 


THE   PUBLIC   LANDS  DISCUSSED  239 

regard  to  which,  as  Benton  might  have  expressed  it,  as  he  does 
insinuate,  Webster  was  lying  in,  to  be  delivered  of.  Superbly 
confident  of  his  splendid  strength,  he  carelessly  invited  the  storm ; 
but  his  subsequent  tone  and  utterance  indicated  that  he  had  by  no 
means  accurately  gauged  the  force  of  the  tempest  which  broke  on 
him.  Careless  is  the  proper  word ;  for  no  greater  contrast  can  be 
found  between  two  speeches  than  the  nonchalant,  flippant,  offen- 
sive style  of  his  first  speech,  and  the  wary,  painstaking,  deliberately 
defensive  attitude  assumed  in  the  second  and  supreme  effort.  In 
this  latter  there  were  counter  attacks ;  for  he  was  too  great  a  master 
of  his  art  not  to  know  that  by  such  alone  can  the  defence  be  made 
effective ;  but  it  is  apparent  that,  starting  upon  the  offensive,  with 
confidence  from  his  past  triumphs  in  the  House  so  great,  he 
actually  dropped  back  into  the  use  of  the  word  "member,"  he 
passed  over  to  the  defensive.  The  very  misleading  title  with  which 
his  speeches  are  generally  lumped  together  and  published  without 
Hayne's,  indicates  this;  for  while  he  was  the  aggressor,  his  effort  is 
styled  without  any  differentiation  of  parts,  "  Webster's  Reply  to 
Hayne."  With  supreme  skill,  under  as  burning  a  fire  as  ever  de- 
bater was  subjected  to,  disclosing  in  the  mighty  effort  with  which 
he  extricated  himself  the  wounds  he  had  received,  he  delivered  a 
powerful  but  not  complete  blow  at  nullification,  and,  mounting  to  an 
unassailable  position,  grandly  apotheosized  the  flag  under  whose 
ample  folds  he  found  the  "  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land." 
The  transcendent  beauty  of  that  apotheosis  awoke  the  spirit  of 
nationality  and  thrilled  it  as  it  had  never  been  thrilled  before. 
To-day  those  phrases  still  thrill  the  pulse  of  the  people,  and  the 
vast  majority  of  men  are  incapable  of  accurately  estimating  that 
portion  of  the  speech  which  preceded  it,  or  the  fire  of  the  adversary 
for  which  it  was  alone  the  adequate  response. 

Webster  was  a  mighty  genius ;  Hayne  was  not  abnormal,  there- 
fore it  is  doubtful  whether  he  could  be  called  a  genius,  in  one 


240  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

accepted  sense  of  the  word.  He  had  not  received  the  advantages  of 
education  which  had  been  bestowed  upon  Webster,  and,  to  a  great 
extent,  was  a  self-educated  man.  But  the  grasp  of  his  mind  was 
immense,  the  profundity  of  his  judgment  has  not  yet  been  fully 
fathomed  and  his  readiness  in  debate  has  never  been  surpassed,  if 
it  has  been  equalled.  In  argument,  his  speech,  with  the  exception 
of  the  justification  of  nullification  as  a  constitutional  remedy, 
a  hopeless  task  for  the  strongest,  went  beyond  Webster's,  and  in 
the  effective  use  pi  sarcasm  he  shone  more  brightly.  In  beauty  of 
diction  he  rose  to  a  lofty  height,  and  if  he  failed  to  reach  the  in- 
accessible peak  to  which,  on  strong  pinion,  Webster  soared  in  his 
peroration,  in  justice  to  him  it  should  be  remembered  that  his 
cause  gave  him  none  such  to  mount  to.  But  in  addition  to  what 
has  been  claimed  for  him,  he  used  with  telling  effect  a  weapon  with 
which  his  adversary's  armory  was  not  furnished.  The  glorious 
triumphs  of  the  New  Englander,  in  a  cause  which  he  had  finally 
abandoned,  but  in  the  righteousness  of  which  it  was  impossible  for 
him  not  to  have  continued  to  believe,  were  fashioned  into  whips 
with  which  to  scourge  him,  and  this  Webster  felt,  keenly,  as  his 
great  speech  indicates.  But  enough  has  been  said  to  bring  fairly 
before  the  reader  Hayne's  reply  to  Webster's  assault.  It  opened 
with  an  easy,  natural  clearing  away  of  the  misstatements  concern- 
ing his  own  speech  on  the  public  lands,  and  this  being  accomplished, 
he  took  the  offensive  and  drove  home  point  after  point,  which  it 
was  impossible  to  answer. 


CHAPTER   XII 

HAYNE'S   REPLY   TO   WEBSTER 

In  reply  to  Mr.  Webster,  Mr.  Hayne  rose  and  said:  "When  I 
took  occasion,  Mr.  President,  two  days  ago,  to  throw  out  some 
ideas  with  respect  to  the  policy  of  the  government  in  relation  to 
the  public  lands,  nothing  certainly  could  have  been  further  from 
my  thoughts  than  that  I  should  be  compelled  again  to  throw  myself 
upon  the  indulgence  of  the  Senate.  Little  did  I  expect  to  be 
called  upon  to  meet  such  an  argument  as  was  yesterday  urged  by 
the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  (Mr.  Webster).  Sir,  I  ques- 
tioned no  man's  opinions,  —  I  impeached  no  man's  motives,  —  I 
charged  no  part  or  state  or  section  of  country  with  hostility  to  any 
other,  but  ventured,  I  thought,  in  a  becoming  spirit,  to  put  forth  my 
own  sentiments  in  relation  to  a  great  question  of  public  policy. 
Such  was  my  course.  The  gentleman  from  Missouri  (Mr.  Benton), 
it  is  true,  had  charged  upon  the  Eastern  States  an  early  and  con- 
tinued hostility  towards  the  West,  and  referred  to  a  number  of 
historical  facts  and  documents  in  support  of  that  charge.  Now, 
Sir,  how  have  those  different  arguments  been  met  ?  The  Honor- 
able Gentleman  from  Massachusetts,  after  deliberating  a  whole 
night  upon  his  course,  comes  into  this  chamber  to  vindicate  New 
England;  and  instead  of  making  up  his  issue  with  the  gentleman 
from  Missouri  on  the  charges  which  he  had  preferred,  chooses 
to  consider  me  as  the  author  of  these  charges,  and  losing  sight 
entirely  of  that  gentleman,  selects  me  as  his  adversary,  and  pours 
out  all  the  vials  of  his  mighty  wrath  upon  my  devoted  head.  Nor 
r  241 


242  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

is  he  willing  to  stop  there.  He  goes  on  to  assail  the  institutions 
and  policy  of  the  South,  and  calls  in  question  the  principles  and 
conduct  of  the  State,  which  I  have  the  honor  in  part  to  represent. 
When  I  find  a  gentleman  of  mature  age  and  experience,  of  acknowl- 
edged talents  and  profound  sagacity,  pursuing  a  course  like  this, 
declining  the  contest  offered  from  the  West,  and  making  war  upon 
the  unoffending  South,  I  must  believe  —  I  am  bound  to  believe, 
—  he  has  some  object  in  view  that  he  has  not  ventured  to  dis- 
close." " 

Up  to  this  point  the  opening  could  not  have  been  improved  upon. 
Not  unnaturally,  Hayne  proceeded  with  his  insinuation  that  Web- 
ster feared  an  encounter  with  Benton;  but  that  broadening  of 
the  charge  afforded  an  opportunity  for  a  reply  to  this  otherwise 
unassailable  statement  of  his  case.  His  development  of  the  theme, 
his  allusion  to  "  the  ghost  of  the  murdered  coalition  come  back  like 
the  ghost  of  Banquo  to  c  sear  the  eyeballs'  of  the  gentleman,"  was 
a  pretty  bit  of  fancy,  but  rather  dangerous  playfulness  in  which 
to  sport  with  such  an  adversary  as  Webster.  But  from  then,  ad- 
dressing himself  to  the  argument,  Hayne  makes,  in  its  compre- 
hensive conciseness,  a  powerful  point  at  the  very  outset:  "The 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts,  in  reply  to  my  remarks  on  the 
injurious  operation  of  our  land  system  on  the  prosperity  of  the 
West,  pronounces  an  extravagant  eulogium  on  the  paternal  care 
which  the  Government  had  extended  towards  the  West,  to  which 
he  attributed  all  that  was  great  and  excellent  in  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  new  States.  The  language  of  the  gentleman  on  this 
topic  fell  on  my  ears  like  the  almost  forgotten  tones  of  the  Tory 
leaders  of  the  British  Parliament  at  the  commencement  of  the 
American  Revolution.  They,  too,  discovered  that  the  colonies 
had  grown  great  under  the  fostering  care  of  the  mother  country; 
and  I  must  confess,  while  listening  to  the  gentleman,  I  thought  the 

1  "The  Several  Speeches  on  Foote's  Resolution,"  Hayne's  second  speech,  p.  i. 


HAYNE'S   REPLY  TO   WEBSTER  243 

appropriate  reply  to  his  argument  was  to  be  found  in  the  remark 
of  a  celebrated  orator  made  on  that  occasion,  '  They  have  grown 
great  in  spite  of  your  protection.'" 

Just  at  this  point,  Hayne  suspended  his  argument  for  a  moment 
to  hold  up  to  ridicule,  by  an  exhibition  of  keen  sarcasm,  a  piece 
of  hyperbole  Webster  had  been  so  indiscreet  as  to  have  indulged 
in  while  launching  his  attack.     "The  gentleman,  in  commenting 
on  the  policy  of  the  Government  in  relation  to  the  new  States, 
has  introduced  to  our  notice  a  certain  Nathan  Dane  of  Massachu- 
setts, to  whom  he    attributes    the    celebrated  ordinance  of  '87, 
by  which  he  tells  us  '  slavery  was  forever  excluded  from  the  new 
States  north  of  the  Ohio.,     After  eulogizing  the  wisdom  of  this 
provision  in  terms  of  the  most  extravagant  praise,  he  breaks  forth 
in  admiration  of  the  greatness  of  Nathan  Dane  —  and  great,  indeed, 
he  must  be,  if  it  be  true,  as  stated  by  the  Senator  from  Massa- 
chusetts, that  he  was  greater  than  Solon  and  Lycurgus,  Minos, 
Numa  Pompilius  and  all  the  legislators  and  philosophers  of  the 
world,  ancient  and  modern.     Sir,  to  such  high  authority  it  is  cer- 
tainly my  duty,  in  a  becoming  spirit  of  humility,  to  submit,  and  yet 
the  gentleman  will  pardon  me,  when  I  say  that  it  is  a  little  unfor- 
tunate for  the  fame  of  this  great  Legislator,  that  the  gentleman  of 
Missouri  should  have  proved  that  he  was  not  the  author  of  the 
ordinance  of  '87,  on  which  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts  has 
reared  so  glorious  a  monument  to  his  name.     Sir,  I  doubt  not 
that  the  Senator  will  feel  some  compassion  for   our   ignorance 
when  I  tell  him,  that  so  little  are  we  acquainted  with  the  modern 
great  men  of  New  England  that  until  he  informed  us  yesterday 
that  we  possessed  a  Solon  and  a  Lycurgus  in  the  person  of  Nathan 
Dane,  he  was  only  known  to  the  South  as  a  member  of  a  celebrated 
assembly  called  and  known  by  the  name  of  the  'Hartford  Con- 
vention.'    In  the  proceedings  of  that  assembly,  which  I  hold  in 
my  hand  (at  page  19),  will  be  found  in  a  few  lines  the  history  of 


244  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

Nathan  Dane,  and  a  little  further  on  there  is  conclusive  evidence 
of  that  ardent  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  new  States  which  it 
seems  has  given  him  a  just  claim  to  the  title  of  the  '  Father  of  the 
West.'  By  the  second  resolution  of  'The  Hartford  Convention ' 
it  is  declared,  'that  it  is  expedient  to  attempt  to  make  provision 
for  restraining  Congress  in  the  exercise  of  an  unlimited  power  to 
make  new  States  and  admitting  them  into  the  Union !  So  much 
for  Nathan  Dane  of  Beverly,  Massachusetts  !"  * 

After  this,  the  most  brilliant  essays  of  Webster,  in  the  same 
line,  seem  to  lack  a  little  in  lightness  of  touch. 

Having  disposed  of  Nathan  Dane,  Hayne  takes  up  that  portion 
of  Webster's  speech  concerning  which  the  latter  had  declared  had 
been  mainly  induced  by  Hayne' s  argument  on  the  disposition  of  the 
public  lands.  He  states  his  own  argument  and  Webster's,  and  pro- 
duces in  support  of  his  own  a  speech  by  Webster  delivered  in  the 
House  in  1825,  and  forcibly  comments  on  their  similarity.  "In 
1825  the  gentleman  told  the  world  that  the  public  lands  'ought  not 
to  be  treated  as  treasure.'  He  now  tells  us  'they  must  be  treated 
as  so  much  treasure.'  What  the  deliberate  opinion  of  the  gentle- 
man on  the  subject  may  be,  it  belongs  not  to  me  to  determine; 
but  I  do  not  think  he  can,  with  the  shadow  of  justice  or  propriety, 
impugn  my  sentiments,  while  his  own  recorded  opinions  are  identi- 
cal with  my  own."  Taking  up  Webster's  contention,  that  inas- 
much as  the  public  lands  are  "for  the  common  benefit  of  all  the 
States,  they  can  only  be  treated  as  so  much  treasure,"  he  argues 
that  the  facilitation  of  the  formation  of  new  States  is  the  best 
way  to  promote  the  common  benefit  of  all  the  States,  and  pref- 
erable to  the  measurement  of  political  benefits  by  the  money 
standard.  Then  passing  to  the  charge  of  the  South's  hostility  to 
the  West,  manifested  by  their  opposition  to  appropriations  for 
internal  improvement,  he  calls  to  mind  that  the  accuser  acknowl- 

1  "The  Several  Speeches  on  Foote's  Resolution,"  Hayne's  second  speech,  p.  3,  et  seq. 


HAYNE'S   REPLY  TO   WEBSTER  245 

edged  that  the  South  entertains  constitutional  scruples  on  the  sub- 
ject and  then  inquires:  "Are  we  then,  Sir,  to  understand  that  the 
gentleman  considers  it  a  just  subject  of  reproach,  that  we  respect 
our  oaths  by  which  we  are  bound  to '  preserve,  protect  and  defend  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States '  ?  Would  the  gentleman  have  us 
manifest  our  love  to  the  West  by  trampling  under  foot  our  con- 
stitutional scruples?  Does  he  not  perceive,  if  the  South  is  to  be 
reproached  with  unkindness  to  the  West,  in  voting  against  appro- 
priations, which  the  gentleman  admits  they  could  not  vote  for 
without  doing  violence  to  their  constitutional  opinions,  that  he 
exposes  himself  to  the  question  whether,  if  he  was  in  our  situation, 
he  could  vote  for  these  appropriations,  regardless  of  his  scruples?" 

But  extracts  from  a  speech,  which  from  one  end  to  the  other 
fairly  bristles  with  points  scored,  give  but  little  idea  of  it  —  the 
speech  should  be  read  in  conjunction  with  Webster's  rejoinder, 
and  the  utter  inability  of  that  genius  to  answer  many  of  the  thrusts 
with  which  it  abounds  is  its  claim  to  praise. 

Hayne  did  not  avoid  the  argument  with  regard  to  slavery,  but 
fairly  stating  it,  temperately  and  firmly  met  the  issue.  He  said: 
"In  contrasting  the  State  of  Ohio  with  Kentucky,  for  the  purpose 
of  pointing  out  the  superiority  of  the  former,  and  of  attributing 
that  superiority  to  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the  one  State  and  its 
absence  in  the  other,  I  thought  I  could  discern  the  very  spirit  of  the 
Missouri  question  intruded  into  this  debate  for  objects  best  known 
to  the  gentleman  himself.  Did  that  gentleman,  Sir,  when  he 
formed  the  determination  to  cross  the  Southern  border,  in  order  to 
invade  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  deem  it  prudent  or  necessary 
to  enlist  under  his  banners  the  prejudices  of  the  world,  which  like 
Swiss  troops  may  be  engaged  in  any  cause  and  are  prepared  to 
serve  under  any  leader?  Did  he  desire  to  avail  himself  of  those 
remorseless  allies,  the  passions  of  mankind,  of  which  it  may  be 
more  truly  said  than  of  the  savage  tribes  of  the  wilderness,  'that 


246  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

their  known  rule  of  warfare  is  an  indiscriminate  slaughter  of  all 
ages,  sexes  and  conditions'  ?  Or  was  it  supposed,  Sir,  that  in  a  pre- 
meditated and  unprovoked  attack  upon  the  South  it  was  advisable 
to  begin  by  a  gentle  admonition  of  our  weakness  in  order  to  prevent 
us  from  making  that  firm  and  manly  resistance  due  to  our  own 
character  and  our  dearest  interests?  Was  the  significant  hint 
of  the  weakness  of  the  slave-holding  States  when  contrasted  with 
the  superior  strength  of  the  free  States  —  like  the  glare  of  the 
weapon  half  drawn  from  its  scabbard  —  intended  to  enforce  the 
lessons  of  prudence  and  patriotism  which  the  gentleman  had 
resolved,  out  of  his  abundant  generosity,  gratuitously  to  bestow 
upon  us?  Mr.  President,  the  impression  which  has  gone  abroad 
of  the  weakness  of  the  South  as  connected  with  the  slave  question 
exposes  us  to  such  constant  attack,  has  done  us  so  much  injury, 
and  is  calculated  to  produce  such  infinite  mischiefs,  that  I  embrace 
the  occasion  presented  by  the  remarks  of  the  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts  to  declare  that  we  are  ready  to  meet  the  question 
promptly  and  fearlessly."  That  question,  he  does  then  discuss,  in 
a  truly  fair  and  liberal  spirit  for  a  slave-holder ;  but  in  addition  he 
shows  what  the  representatives  of  the  Northern  manufacturing 
interests  thoroughly  recognized,  and  on  account  of  which  they 
almost  invariably  sided  with  the  South  on  all  questions  save  that 
of  the  tariff,  viz.,  that  "the  States  north  of  the  Potomac  actually 
derive  greater  profits  from  the  labor  of  our  slaves  than  we  do  our- 
selves." Hayne  did  not  content  himself  with  asserting  this;  he 
proved  it  by  figures.  But  when  he  left  this  point  and  proceeded 
to  expatiate  upon  the  beneficial  influences  of  slavery  upon  individ- 
ual and  national  character,  he  placed  himself  upon  such  slippery 
ground  that  the  presentments  of  his  own  district  Grand  Jury,  and 
his  own  efforts  with  D.  E.  Huger  and  other  far-sighted  men  to  stem 
the  evil,  condemned  his  argument  so  positively  that  not  even  the 
illustration  of   Washington  as   a  slave-holder  could  establish  it. 


HAYNE'S   REPLY   TO   WEBSTER  247 

With  regard  to  Webster's  strong  point  on  consolidation,  he  shows 
that  his  authority  supports  consolidation  of  the  Union ;  while  what 
he  (Hayne)  objected  to,  was  consolidation  of  the  government,  a 
rather  fine  distinction.  Then  he  takes  up  the  tariff,  and  on  that 
point  fairly  kills  his  adversary  with  kindness,  painting  his  glorious 
past,  until  the  blaze  of  its  brilliancy  scorches  the  back  turned  upon 
it :  the  rare  illustration  of  eulogy  turned  into  a  weapon.  As  grand 
a  tribute  as  was  ever  bestowed  by  a  rival,  the  absolute  sincerity  of 
it  evinced  by  the  speaker's  ill-concealed  contempt  for  the  opposing 
argument,  with  which  Clay  attempted  to  meet  it  at  the  time  of 
its  delivery.  Poor  Webster !  undoubtedly  his  own  opinion  of  his 
performance  and  his  exact  thought  of  Clay's.  How  could  he  hope 
to  reply  to  it?  He  could  not,  and  did  not.  Here  is  Hayne's  mas- 
terly handling  of  that  point:  "The  Senator  from  Massachusetts, 
in  alluding  to  the  tariff,  becomes  quite  facetious.  He  tells  us 
that  he  hears  nothing  but  tariff !  tariff !  tariff !  and  if  a  word 
could  be  found  to  rhyme  with  it,  he  presumes  it  would  be  celebrated 
in  verse  and  set  to  music.  Sir,  perhaps  the  gentleman  in  mockery 
of  our  complaints  may  be  himself  disposed  to  sing  the  praises  of  the 
tariff  in  doggerel  verse  to  the  tune  of  'Old  Hundred.'  I  am  not 
surprised,  however,  at  the  aversion  of  the  gentleman  to  the  very 
name  of  tariff.  I  doubt  not  that  it  must  always  bring  up  some 
very  unpleasant  recollections  to  his  mind.  If  I  am  not  greatly 
mistaken,  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts  was  a  leading  actor  at 
that  great  meeting  got  up  in  Boston  in  1820  against  the  tariff.  It 
has  been  generally  supposed  that  he  drew  up  the  resolutions  adopted 
by  that  meeting,  denouncing  the  tariff  system  as  unequal,  oppres- 
sive and  unjust;  and,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  denying  its  constitu- 
tionality. Certain  it  is  that  the  gentleman  made  a  speech  on  that 
occasion  in  support  of  those  resolutions  denouncing  the  system  in 
no  very  measured  terms ;  and  if  my  memory  serves  me,  calling  its 
constitutionality  in  question.     I  regret  that  I  have  not  been  able  to 


248  ROBERT  Y.  HAYNE 

lay  my  hands  on  those  proceedings ;  but  I  have  seen  them,  and  I 
cannot  be  mistaken  in  their  character.  At  that  time,  Sir,  the  Sen- 
ator from  Massachusetts  entertained  the  very  sentiments  in  relation 
to  the  tariff  which  the  South  now  entertains.  We  next  find  the 
Senator  from  Massachusetts  expressing  his  opinion  on  the  tariff 
as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  from  the  city  of  Boston 
in  1824.  On  that  occasion,  Sir,  the  gentleman  assumed  a  position 
which  commanded  the  respect  and  admiration  of  his  country. 
He  stood  forth  the  powerful  and  fearless  champion  of  free  trade. 
He  met  in  that  conflict  the  advocates  of  restriction  and  monopoly, 
and  'they  fled  from  before  his  face.'  With  a  profound  sagacity,  a 
fulness  of  knowledge  and  a  richness  of  illustration  that  has  never 
been  surpassed,  he  maintained  and  established  the  principles  of  com- 
mercial freedom  on  a  foundation  never  to  be  shaken.  Great,  indeed, 
was  the  victory  achieved  by  the  gentleman  on  that  occasion,  most 
striking  the  contrast  between  the  clear,  forcible  and  convincing 
arguments  by  which  he  carried  away  the  understandings  of  his 
hearers  and  the  narrow  views  and  wretched  sophistry  of  another 
distinguished  orator,  who  may  be  truly  said  to  have  'held  up  his 
farthing  candle  to  the  sun.'  Sir,  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts 
on  that,  the  proudest  day  of  his  life,  bore  away  upon  his  shoulders 
the  pillars  of  the  temple  of  error  and  delusion,  escaping  himself 
unhurt,  and  leaving  his  adversaries  overwhelmed  in  its  ruins. 

"  Then  it  was  that  he  erected  to  free  trade  a  beautiful  and  en- 
during monument,  and  '  inscribed  the  marble  with  his  name.'  Mr. 
President,  it  is  with  pain  and  regret  that  I  now  go  forward  to  the 
next  great  era  in  the  political  life  of  that  gentleman,  when  he  was 
found  on  this  floor,  advocating  and  finally  voting  for  the  tariff  of 
1828  — that  'bill  of  abominations.'  By  that  act,  Sir,  the  Sena- 
tor from  Massachusetts  has  destroyed  the  labors  of  his  whole  life 
and  given  a  wound  to  the  cause  of  free  trade,  never  to  be  healed. 
Sir,  when  I  recollect  the  position  which  that  gentleman  once  occu- 


HAYNE'S   REPLY   TO   WEBSTER 


249 


pied,  and  that  which  he  now  holds  in  public  estimation,  in  relation 
to  this  subject,  it  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  the  tariff  should  be 
hateful  to  his  ears.  Sir,  if  I  had  erected  to  my  own  fame  so  proud 
a  monument  as  that  which  the  gentleman  built  up  in  1824,  and  I 
could  have  been  tempted  to  destroy  it  with  my  own  hands,  I  should 
hate  the  voice  that  should  ring  'the  accursed  Tariff'  in  my  ears. 
I  doubt  not  the  gentleman  feels  very  much  in  relation  to  the  tariff 
as  a  certain  knight  did  to  instinct,  and  with  him  would  be  disposed 
to  exclaim : 

"'Ah!  no  more  of  that,  Hal,  an  thou  lovest  me.'" 

From  this  point  Hayne  proceeded  to  his  eulogy  upon  South 
Carolina,  which,  as  beautiful  as  it  is,  it  is  not  necessary  to  insert, 
it  being  one  of  the  few  extracts  generally  used  to  represent  his 
speech  when  quoted.  With  the  patriotism  of  South  Carolina  in  the 
Revolutionary  War,  he  contrasted  the  behavior  of  the  Federalists 
in  Massachusetts  during  the  War  of  181 2,  especially  excepting  the 
democracy  of  the  latter  State  from  any  criticism,  and,  indeed, 
bestowing  upon  them  unstinted  praise.  "Sir,"  he  exclaimed,  "I 
will  declare  that  highly  as  I  appreciate  the  democracy  of  the  South, 
I  consider  even  higher  praise  to  be  due  to  the  democracy  of  New  Eng- 
land, who  have  maintained  their  principles  through  good  and  through 
evil  report,  and  at  every  period  of  our  national  history  have  stood 
up  manfully  for  their  country,  their  whole  country,  and  nothing  but 
their  country."  With  regard  to  the  Federalists,  however,  he  sus- 
tained his  indictment  with  a  veritable  flood  of  quotations  from 
speeches,  resolutions,  etc.,  threatening  the  Union,  in  the  course 
of  which  appeared  an  allusion  to  John  Quincy  Adams  as  authority 
for  the  existence  of  such  a  state  of  mincF ~m~New  England,  quoted 
from  Jefferson's  works,  which  gave  the  ex-President  great  offence, 
he  complainingly  noting  that  it  was  not  answered.1      Objurgation, 

A 


1  u 


Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,"  Vol.  8,  p.  187. 


250  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

imprecation,  from  the  rostrum  and  the  pulpit,  Hayne  poured  them 
forth,  concluding  with:  "  'Those  Western  States  which  have  been 
violent  for  this  abominable  war  (1812),  God  has  given  them  blood 
to  drink,' —  Mr.  President,  I  can  go  no  further  —  the  records  of 
the  day  are  full  of  such  sentiments,  issued  from  the  press  —  spoken 
in  public  assemblies  —  poured  out  from  the  sacred  desk !  God 
forbid,  Sir,  that  I  should  charge  the  people  of  Massachusetts  with 
participating  in  those  sentiments.  The  South  and  West  have  had 
their  friends  —  men  who  stood  by  their  country,  though  encom- 
passed all  around  by  their  enemies  —  the  Senator  from  Massa- 
chusetts (Mr.  Silsbee)  was  one  of  them ;  the  Senator  from  Connecti- 
cut (Mr.  Foot)  was  another,  and  there  were  others  now  on  this  floor. 
The  sentiments  I  have  read  were  the  sentiments  of  a  party  em- 
bracing the  political  associates  of  the  gentleman  from  Massachu- 
setts (Mr.  Webster).  If  they  could  only  be  found  in  the  columns 
of  a  newspaper,  in  a  few  occasional  pamphlets,  issued  by  men  of 
intemperate  feeling,  I  should  not  consider  them  as  affording  any 
evidence  of  the  opinions,  even  of  the  peace  party  of  New  England. 
But,  Sir,  they  were  the  common  language  of  the  day,  they  pervade 
the  whole  land  —  they  were  issued  from  the  legislative  hall  — 
from  the  pulpit  and  the  press  —  our  books  are  full  of  them ;  and 
there  is  no  man  who  now  hears  me  but  knows  that  they  were  the 
sentiments  of  the  party  by  whose  members  they  were  promulgated. 
.  .  .  What  must  be  the  state  of  public  opinion  where  any  respect- 
able clergyman  would  venture  to  preach  and  print  sermons  con- 
taining the  sentiments  I  have  quoted  ?  I  doubt  not  the  piety  or  the 
moral  worth  of  these  gentlemen ;  I  am  told  they  were  respectable, 
and  pious  men.  But  they  were  men,  and  '  they  kindled  in  a  common 
blaze.'  And  now,  Sir,  I  must  be  suffered  to  remark,  that  at  that  awful 
and  melancholy  period  of  our  national  history,  the  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts,  who  nowT  manifests  so  great  a  devotion  to  the  Union 
and  so  much  anxiety  lest  it  should  be  endangered  from  the  South, 


HAYNE'S   REPLY   TO   WEBSTER  251 

was  '  with  his  brethren  in  Israel.'  He  saw  all  these  things  passing 
before  his  eyes ;  he  heard  those  sentiments  uttered  all  around  him. 
I  do  not  charge  that  gentleman  with  any  participation  in  those  acts, 
or  with  approving  those  sentiments.  But  I  will  ask  why,  if  he  was 
animated  by  the  same  sentiments  then  which  he  now  professes, 
if  he  can  'augur  disunion  at  a  distance  and  snuff  rebellion  in  every 
tainted  breeze,'  why  did  he  not  at  that  day  exert  his  great  talents 
and  acknowledged  influence  with  the  political  associates  by  whom 
he  was  surrounded  (and  who  looked  up  to  him  for  guidance  and 
direction)  in  allaying  this  general  excitement;  in  pointing  out  to 
his  deluded  friends  the  value  of  the  Union ;  in  instructing  them, 
that  instead  of  looking  '  to  some  prophet  to  lead  them  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,'  they  should  become  reconciled  to  their  brethren,  and 
unite  with  them  in  the  support  of  a  just  and  necessary  war.  Sir, 
the  gentleman  must  excuse  me  for  saying  that  if  the  records  of  our 
country  afforded  any  evidence  that  he  had  pursued  such  a  course ; 
if  we  could  find  it  recorded  in  the  history  of  those  times,  that  like 
the  immortal  Dexter,  he  had  breasted  that  mighty  torrent  which 
was  sweeping  before  it  all  that  was  great  and  valuable,  in  our 
political  institutions;  if,  like  him,  he  had  stood  by  his  country, 
in  opposition  to  his  party,  Sir,  we  would,  like  little  children,  listen  to 
his  precepts  and  abide  by  his  counsels."  To  answer  this  was  im- 
possible ;  to  survive  it  one  must  needs  be  a  Webster.  In  conclusion, 
Hayne  addressed  himself  to  the  argument  on  which  nullification 
was  based,  viz.,  "  that  if  the  Federal  Government  in  all  or  any  of  its 
departments  are  to  prescribe  the  limits  of  its  own  authority;  and 
the  States  are  bound  to  submit  to  the  decision  and  are  not  to  be 
allowed  to  exercise  and  decide  for  themselves  when  the  barriers 
of  the  Constitution  shall  be  overleaped,  this  is  practically  'a  Govern- 
ment without  limitation  of  powers' ;  the  States  are  at  once  reduced 
to  mere  petty  corporations,  and  the  people  are  entirely  at  your 
mercy."     He  supported  it  upon  the  Republican  doctrine  of  '98, 


252  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

and  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions,  quoting  also  the  reso- 
lutions of  1809  passed  at  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston;  but  losing  sight  of 
the  more  important  ones  of  181 1 ;  and  he  leaves  Webster  to  explain, 
if  he  can,  his  own  allusion  to  the  Embargo  Act  as  "  dangerous  to 
the  being  of  the  Government,"  as  would  be  illustrated  by  "consti- 
tutional opposition."  But  to  Hayne's  practical  mind,  something 
more  he  feels  is  necessary,  and  he  adds :  "The  South  is  acting  on  a 
principle  she  has  always  held  sound  —  resistance  to  unauthorized 
taxation.  .  .  .  Sir,  if  in  acting  on  these  high  motives,  if  animated 
by  that  ardent  love  of  liberty  which  has  always  been  the  most 
prominent  trait  in  the  Southern  character,  we  should  be  hurried 
beyond  the  bounds  of  cold  and  calculating  prudence,  who  is  there 
with  one  noble  and  generous  sentiment  in  his  bosom  that  would  not 
be  disposed  in  the  language  of  Burke  to  exclaim, '  You  must  pardon 
something  to  the  spirit  of  liberty '  ?  " 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Webster's  rejoinder  to  the  reply 

It  was  now  the  turn  of  him,  whom  history  names  as  the  greatest 
orator  of  our  country,  to  sustain  the  thread  of  the  debate.  It  had 
taken  Hayne,  rising  the  day  after  the  delivery  of  Webster's  assault 
upon  him,  with  regard  to  the  public  lands,  two  congressional  days, 
or  about  four  hours,  to  complete  his  reply.  He  had  demolished 
Webster's  arguments  with  regard  to  the  public  lands ;  but  he  had 
found  himself  unavoidably  drawn  into  a  defence  of  nullification. 
Webster's  first  speech  was  that  portion  of  his  force  with  which  he 
aimed  to  contain  the  enemy  and  draw  him  from  the  original  ground 
of  the  discussion  to  this  latter  subject.  This  he  had  accomplished, 
and  the  way  was  now  open  for  his  real  speech ;  but  he  had  scarcely 
anticipated  such  a  demolition  of  his  own  first  effort,  and  he  there- 
fore felt  it  necessary  to  attempt  to  knit  it  into  some  semblance  of 
argument  again  before  absolutely  abandoning  it.  Also  he  distinctly 
felt  not  a  few  of  the  thrusts  inflicted  by  his  opponent  and  de- 
sired to  repay  them  in  kind,  which  he  was,  indeed,  quite  capable 
of  accomplishing.  Yet  the  very  opening  of  his  speech  is  a  great  com- 
pliment to  Hayne:  the  tone  of  superiority,  of  easy  confidence,  is 
gone,  and  we  have  a  man  of  immense  power,  it  is  true,  and  wonder- 
ful address ;  but  one  nevertheless,  for  all  his  force,  advancing  with 
the  greatest  caution  and  deliberation.  He  feels  that  it  is  necessary 
for  him  to  exert  every  effort  of  which  he  is  capable,  and  even  to 
gloss  over  some  unanswerable  points  with  palpable  misstatements. 
His  condition  could  not  have  been  better  stated  than  in  his  own 

253 


254  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

words:  "When  the  mariner  has  been  tossed  for  many  days,  in 
thick  weather  and  on  an  unknown  sea,  he  naturally  avails  himself 
of  the  first  pause  in  the  storm,  the  earliest  glance  of  the  sun,  to  take 
his  latitude  and  ascertain  how  far  the  elements  have  driven  him 
from  his  true  course."  Then,  after  asking  and  obtaining  the  read- 
ing of  the  resolution,  he  comments  on  it  as  follows :  "  We  have  thus 
heard,  Sir,  what  the  resolution  is,  which  is  actually  before  us ;  and 
it  will  readily  occur  to  every  one,  that  it  is  almost  the  only  subject 
about  which  something  has  not  been  said  in  the  speech  running 
through  two  days  by  which  the  Senate  has  been  entertained  by 
the  gentleman  from  South  Carolina.  ...  He  has  spoken  of  every- 
thing but  the  public  lands.     They  have  escaped  his  notice." 

This  was  not  only  a  misstatement,  but  a  very  absurd  one;  for 
not  alone  Hayne's  speech,  but  his  own  subsequent  efforts  to  meet 
the  arguments  on  that  point,  disclose  the  absolute  lack  of  truth  of 
the  charge.  He  then  finds  fault  with  Hayne  for  refusing  to  post- 
pone the  debate,  and  makes  much  of  the  latter's  alleged  use  of  the 
word  "rankle."  He  disclaims  any  feeling  against  Hayne,  although 
in  the  very  next  breath  he  makes  mysterious  allusion  to  those 
"passages"  which  "it  is  true  had  occurred  since  our  acquaintance 
in  this  body,  which  I  could  have  wished  might  have  been  other- 
wise, but  I  had  used  philosophy  and  forgotten  them."  Playing  still 
with  the  word  "rankling,"  and  with  some  skill,  he  rather  ostenta- 
tiously boasts  of  his  adversary's  thrusts,  that  "whether  his  shafts 
were  or  were  not  dipped  in  that  which  would  have  caused  ran- 
kling, there  was  not,  as  it  happened,  strength  enough  in  the  bow  to 
bring  them  to  their  mark.  .  .  .  They  will  not  be  found  fixed  and 
quivering  in  the  object  at  which  they  were  aimed."  This  is  un- 
doubtedly a  pretty  bit  of  phrasing,  but  not  entirely  convincing. 
His  play  upon  Hayne's  charge,  that  he  had  slept  on  his  (Hayne's) 
speech,  is  a  specimen  of  true  wit.  His  answer  to  the  inquiry  why 
he  attacked  Hayne  instead  of  Benton,  is  not  worthy  of  him ;   but 


WEBSTER'S   REJOINDER  TO   THE   REPLY  255 

he  seizes  upon  the  intimation  that  it  was  from  fear  of  Benton,  and 
makes  it  the  occasion  of  a  spirited  rebuke  to  Hayne  and  a  defi- 
ance of  both  Benton  and  himself.  By  overlaboring  this,  however, 
with  the  angry  declaration  that  "  if  provoked  into  crimination  and 
recrimination,  the  honorable  member  may  perhaps  find  that  in  that 
contest  there  will  be  blows  to  take  as  well  as  blows  to  give;  that 
others  can  state  comparisons  as  significant  at  least  as  his  own,  and 
that  his  impunity  may,  perhaps,  demand  of  him  whatever  powers 
of  taunt  and  sarcasm  he  may  possess,"  he  disproves  his  previous 
boast  that  there  was  not  strength  enough  in  the  bow  to  bring  his 
adversary's  shafts  to  the  mark.  His  reply,  also,  to  the  insinuation 
concerning  the  coalition,  while  cutting  in  the  extreme  and  bitterly 
scornful,  is  too  abusive  to  permit  a  belief  in  the  absence  of  feeling 
claimed.  But  his  attempt  to  reanimate  poor  Nathan  Dane  is  a 
feeble  performance:  "A  worthy  man,  Mr.  Dane.  .  .  .  Sir,  if 
the  honorable  member  has  never  before  heard  of  Mr.  Dane,  I  am 
sorry  for  it.  It  shows  him  less  acquainted  with  the  public  men  of 
the  country  than  I  had  supposed.  Let  me  tell  him,  however,  that 
a  sneer  from  him  at  the  mention  of  the  name  of  Mr.  Dane  is  in  bad 
taste."  This  is  eminently  proper,  but  a  far  cry  from  Solon  and 
Lycurgus.  From  this  point  he  moves  on  to  the  Hartford  Con- 
vention, of  which  he  declares  he  knows  nothing  and  has  never  read 
its  journal;  but  is  nevertheless  quite  sure  that  other  conventions 
"have  gone  a  whole  bar's  length  beyond  it."  So  far,  however,  as  a 
spirit  can  be  discovered  in  its  proceedings,  in  any  degree  resembling 
that  which  was  avowed  and  justified  in  those  other  conventions,  he 
would  be  as  ready  "to  bestow  on  them  reprehension  and  censure." 
But  whatever  force  there  was  in  this,  was  most  materially  weakened 
by  the  stinging  cut  aimed,  in  a  preceding  passage,  at  the  dis- 
coverer who  had  ventured  to  reveal  such  in  his  section:  "However 
uninformed  the  honorable  member  may  be  of  characters  and  oc- 
currences at  the  North,  it  would  seem  that  he  has  at  his  elbow 


256  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

on  this  occasion  some  high-minded  and  lofty  spirit,  some  mag- 
nanimous and  true-hearted  monitor,  possessing  the  means  of  local 
knowledge  and  ready  to  supply  the  honorable  member  with  every- 
thing, down  to  forgotten  and  moth-eaten  two-penny  pamphlets, 
which  may  be  used  to  the  disadvantage  of  his  own  country." 
This  was  a  great  slip;  it  was  yielding  to  Hayne  ground  for  his 
contention,  that  his  adversary  was  inclined  to  overlook  what  hap- 
pened in  his  own  section,  while  so  ready  to  rebuke  the  South. 
Passing  on  to  a  consideration  of  the  subject  which  he  had  declared 
in  his  first  speech  was  the  main  occasion  of  his  addressing  the 
Senate,  apparently  now  oblivious  of  the  charge  that  Hayne  had 
"  spoken  of  everything  but  the  public  lands, — they  escaped  his 
notice,  —  "  he  critically  considers  the  latter's  argument,  elaborates 
the  pointed  application  from  the  speech  delivered  in  the  British 
Parliament,  tells  us  by  whom  it  was  made ;  but  maintains,  "  Sir, 
this  fervid  eloquence  of  the  British  speaker,  just  when  and  where 
it  was  uttered,  and  fit  to  remain  an  exercise  for  the  schools,  is  not 
a  little  out  of  place  when  it  is  brought  thence  to  be  applied  here  to 
the  conduct  of  our  own  country  towards  her  own  citizens." 

Then  he  defends  himself  rather  laboriously  from  the  charge  of 
inconsistency  in  his  present  and  past  positions  as  to  the  fund  to  be 
derived  from  the  sale  of  the  public  lands,  and  by  dint  of  repeated 
and  unblushing  misstatements  of  Hayne's  argument,  already  ex- 
hibited, succeeds  in  patching  up  something  which  may  stand,  if  the 
speech  of  his  adversary  is  not  read. 

With  regard  to  the  brilliant  passage  in  which  Hayne  had  eulogized 
him  for  the  part  he  had  played  in  1824,  his  comment  is  mild,  as  it 
had  to  be:  "He  pays  undeserved  compliment  to  my  speech  in  1824; 
but  this  is  to  raise  me  high,  that  my  fall,  as  he  would  have  it,  in 
1828,  may  be  the  more  signal."  Yet  his  exculpation  is  not  without 
force.  Reciting  the  history  of  tariff  legislation,  in  which,  at  the 
outset,  he  certainly  opposed  such  more  strenuously  than    either 


WEBSTER'S   REJOINDER   TO   THE   REPLY  257 

Lowndes  or  Calhoun,  he  declares  it  became  the  law  of  the  land,  and 
inquires:  "What,  then,  were  we  to  do?  Our  only  option  was 
either  to  fall  in  with  this  settled  course  of  public  policy,  and  ac- 
commodate ourselves  to  it,  as  well  as  we  could,  or  to  embrace  the 
South  Carolina  doctrine,  and  talk  of  nullifying  the  statute  by 
State  interference."  The  sincerity  of  this  claim,  however,  is  af- 
fected by  the  entry  in  John  Quincy  Adams's  diary  of  May  7,  1828, 
before  quoted.  Referring  again  to  the  Hartford  Convention,  he 
takes  much  stronger  ground,  and  inquires  of  Hayne  whether  he 
referred  to  it  for  authority  or  for  a  topic  of  reproach,  and  he  makes 
the  strong  point  that  in  Hayne's  eyes :  "  The  thing  itself,  then,  is 
a  precedent ;  the  time  and  manner  of  it  only  subject  of  censure. 
Now,  Sir,  I  go  much  farther  on  this  point  than  the  honorable 
member.  Supposing  .  .  .  that  the  Hartford  Convention  assembled 
for  any  such  purpose  as  breaking  up  the  Union  .  .  .  then  I  say 
the  meeting  itself  was  disloyal  and  obnoxious  to  censure,  whether 
held  in  time  of  peace  or  time  of  war,  or  under  whatever  circum- 
stances." This  was  the  true  presentation,  and  if  he  could  only 
have  pointed  to  some  such  declaration  at  the  time  from  himself, 
he  would  have  had  Hayne  at  his  mercy;  but  that  still  remained 
unexplained.  To  cure  the  trouble,  he  resorted  to  a  challenge 
which  it  is  true  Hayne  failed  to  meet,  from  a  lack  of  knowledge 
which  can  scarcely  be  attributed  to  Webster,  much  nearer  the  scene 
and  within  a  year  or  two  of  his  entrance  into  Congress.  "Let  us 
follow  up,  Sir,"  he  says,  "this  New  England  opposition  to  the 
embargo  laws  .  .  .  till  we  discern  the  principle,  which  controlled 
and  governed  New  England  throughout  the  whole  course  of  that 
opposition.  .  .  .  There  was  heat,  there  was  anger  in  her  politi- 
cal feelings  ...  Be  it  so;  but  did  she  propose  the  Carolina 
remedy?  Did  she  threaten  to  interfere  by  State  authority  to  annul 
the  laws  of  the  Union?  That  is  the  question  for  the  gentleman's 
consideration." 


258  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

She  certainly  did ;  but  unfortunately  for  Hayne,  at  a  date  when 
he  was  so  occupied  that  he  had  probably  no  time  to  note  anything 
beyond  the  press  of  his  duties,  accumulated  by  his  approaching 
examination  for  the  bar  and  Mr.  Cheves's  departure  to  Congress. 
The  Faneuil  Hall  resolutions  of  March  30,  181 1,  have  already  been 
pointed  out.  They  declared  the  act  of  March  2,  181 1,  "ex-post 
facto  and  void,  unjust  and  tyrannical,"  to  be  remedied  by  "the 
election  of  such  men  to  the  various  offices  in  the  State  government 
as  will  oppose  by  peaceable  but  firm  measures  the  execution  of 
laws,  which,  if  persisted  in,  must  and  will  be  resisted."  '  Between 
this  and  the  Carolina  remedy  there  is  not  a  shade  of  difference. 
Webster  may  not  have  known  of  these  resolutions,  he  was  perhaps 
not  at  that  time  an  inhabitant  of  Massachusetts ;  but  why  they  are 
ignored  by  the  historians  of  our  country  is  a  question  for  the  con- 
science of  such.  With  great  dignity  and  propriety,  Webster  had 
meanwhile  discussed  Hayne's  allusion  to  his  having  conceded  consti- 
tutional scruples  to  the  South  with  regard  to  internal  improvements, 
pointing  out  with  justice  that  he  had  gone  out  of  his  way  when  pre- 
senting the  petition  of  the  South  Carolina  Rail  Road  and  Canal  Com- 
pany for  government  subscriptions,  to  allude  to  the  scruples  of  the 
South  Carolina  senator  as  the  reason  it  was  intrusted  to  him,  and 
contrasting  his  action  with  insinuations  cast  upon  his  section  by  the 
latter.  But  by  this  time  he  had  reached  that  portion  of  his  argument 
which  had  been  his  ultimate  aim  from  the  outset :  "  The  great  ques- 
tion, whose  prerogative  it  is  to  decide  on  the  constitutionality  or 
unconstitutionality  of  the  laws  ...  I  say  the  right  of  a  State  to 
annul  a  law  of  Congress  cannot  be  maintained  but  on  the  ground  of 
the  inalienable  right  of  man  to  resist  oppression ;  that  is  to  say,  upon 
the  ground  of  revolution.  I  admit  that  there  is  an  ultimate  violent 
remedy  above  the  Constitution,  which  may  be  resorted  to  when  a 
revolution  is  to  be  justified.     But  I  do  not  admit  that  under  the  Con- 

1  Courier ,  April  23,  181 1. 


WEBSTER'S   REJOINDER  TO   THE   REPLY  259 

stitution  and  in  conformity  with  it  that  there  is  any  mode  in  which 
a  State  Government,  as  a  member  of  the  Union,  can  interfere  and 
stop  the  progress  of  the  Central  Government  by  force  of  her  own 
laws  under  any  circumstances  whatever."  But  this  strong  state- 
ment he  immediately  weakens  with  the  following  unnecessary  con- 
cession in  the  course  of  his  inquiry  into  the  source  of  the  power  of 
the  central  government.  "Whose  agent  is  it?"  he  asks.  "If 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  be  the  agent  of  the  State 
Governments,  then  they  may  control  it ;  if  it  is  the  agent  of  the  people, 
then  the  People  alone  can  control  it,  restrain  it,  modify  it  or  reform 
it."  This  left  a  gap  in  his  line,  into  which  his  alert  adversary 
later  pressed  with  resistless  force.  There  is  an  argument  that  the 
general  government  was  established  by  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  and  not  by  the  States;  for  it  may  be  maintained  that  the 
phraseology  of  the  preamble  to  the  Constitution  indicates  this  and, 
that  if  established  by  the  States,  it  should  read:  We  the  peoples 
of  the  United  States;  but  even  if  established  by  the  States,  as  a 
stronger  argument  indicates,  that  does  not  carry  with  it  the  control 
Webster  concedes,  for  in  the  scope  of  its  agency  its  act  would  be 
the  act  of  its  principals.  Webster  does  however  show,  with  great 
power,  the  unreasonableness  of  a  government  established  for  the 
whole  Union,  with  powers  subject  to  thirteen  or  twenty-four  inter- 
pretations from  that  number  of  popular  bodies,  none  of  which  were 
bound  to  respect  the  decisions  of  the  others  and  each  at  liberty  to 
give  a  new  decision  on  every  new  election  of  its  own  members. 
Following  he  wittily  ridiculed  the  progress  of  nullification  and  showed 
that  it  must  lead  to  direct  collision  between  force  and  force,  and  then 
gliding  easily  and  naturally  into  his  matchless  peroration,  he  closed 
in  a  passage  of  such  splendor  that  it  swept  up  and  destroyed,  in  its 
consuming  fire  every  failure,  which  had  preceded  it,  and  made  him 
immortal. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE   DEBATE   CLOSED   AND   THE   RECORD   SET   STRAIGHT 

When  at  a  late  hour  Webster  ended  his  grand  peroration  and 
Hayne  arose  to  close  the  debate,  the  latter  was  undoubtedly  affected 
by  it.  He  was  of  too  noble  and  generously  patriotic  a  nature  not 
to  have  sympathized  deeply  with  the  sentiments  so  matchlessly 
expressed.  As  a  trained  and  skilful  debater,  he  realized  clearly 
that  upon  every  point,  save  the  important  one  of  nullification,  Web- 
ster had  failed  to  make  any  distinct  impression  on  his  (Hayne's) 
powerful  reply  to  the  first  assault;  nor  could  he  fail  to  note  that 
despite  his  opponent's  denial,  many  of  his  own  shafts  had  found 
lodgment  in  and  been  keenly  felt  by  that  adversary.  Even  on  the 
point  of  nullification,  for  which  Hayne  had  made  more  of  an 
apology  than  an  argument,  he  saw  that  Webster,  in  his  powerful 
attack,  had  given  him  a  point  or  two  which  a  skilful  debater  could 
utilize;  but  the  peroration  was  unassailable.  Yet  it  had  become 
the  speech,  and  sweeping  every  thought  into  one  grand  emotion, 
threatened  to  ingulf  the  argument.  How  could  it  be  met?  Bs- 
should  have  realized  that  it  could  not  be  met  at  all;  but  in  the 
ardor  ofTnTcontesTand  very  probably  from  another  and  very  differ- 
ent motive,  an  indisposition  to  be  considered  as  in  opposition  to  it, 
Tie~vioTaT£cra  cardinal  rule  of  oratory  and  attempted  to  equal  it. 
The  tone  of  his  second  speech  is  as  marked  in  contrast  to  his  first 
as  Webster's  was,  but  in  the  exactly  opposite  direction.  The  irri- 
tation  he  felt  at  the  attack  had  passed,  and  it  is  gentle  throughout. 


He  feels  that  there  is  no  further  occasion  for  sarcasm,  that  his  first 

260 


DEBATE   CLOSED   AND   RECORD    SET   STRAIGHT       261 

speech  dealt  sufficiently  with  that  species  of  defence  and  cut  suf- 
ficiently deep;  his  whole^ajm,  therefore,,  is  to  keep  the  record 
straight,  to  utilize  what  slips  may  help  him  concerning  nullification 
and  temper  the  force  of  his  adversary's  magnificent  peroration.  We 
~can  almost  feel  the  subsidence  of  heat  and  passion  as  he  begins : 
"I  do  not  rise  at  this  late  hour,  Mr.  President,  to  go  at  large  into 
the  controverted  questions  between  the  Senator  from  Massachu- 
setts and  myself;  but  merely-tq correct  somejverxgros^errors  into 
which  he  has  fallen,  and  to  afford  explanation  on  some  points  which, 
after  what  has  fallen  from  that  gentleman,  may  perhaps  be  con- 
sidered as  requiring  explanation.  The  gentleman  has  attempted 
through  the  whole  course  of  his  argument  to  throw  upon  me  the 
blame  of  having  provoked  this  discussion.  Though  standing 
himself  at  the  very  head  and  source  of  this  angry  controversy, 
which  has  flowed  from  him  down  to  me,  he  insists  that  I  have 
troubled  the  waters.  In  order  to  give  color  to  his  charge  (wholly 
unfounded,  Sir,  as  every  gentleman  of  this  body  will  bear  witness), 
he  alludes  to  my  excitement  when  I  first  rose  to  answer  the  gentle- 
man after  he  had  made  his  attack  upon  the  South.  He  charges 
me  with  having  then  confessed  that  I  had  something  rankling  in 
my  bosom  which  I  desired  to  discharge.  Sir,  I  have  no  recollection 
of  having  used  that  word.  If  it  did  escape  me,  however,  in  the 
excitement  of  the  moment,  it  was  indicative  not  of  any  personal 
hostility  towards  that  Senator,  —  for  in  truth,  Sir,  I  felt  none,  — 
but  proceeded  from  a  sensibility  which  could  not  but  be  excited 
by  what  I  had  a  right  to  consider  as  an  unprovoked  and  most 
unwarrantable  attack  upon  the  South  through  me.  The  gentle- 
man boasts  he  has  escaped  unhurt  in  the  conflict.  The  shaft,  it 
seems,  was  shot  by  too  feeble  an  arm  to  reach  its  destination.  Sir, 
I  am  glad  to  hear  this.  Judging  from  the  action  of  the  gentleman,  I 
had  feared  that  the  arrow  had  penetrated  even  more  deeply  than  I 
could  have  wished.     From  the  beating  of  his  breast  and  the  tone  and 


262  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

manner  of  the  gentleman,  I  should  fear  he  is  most  sorely  wounded. 
In  a  better  spirit,  however,  I  will  say  I  hope  his  wounds  may  heal 
kindly  and  leave  no  scars  behind ;  and  let  me  assure  the  gentleman 
that,  however  deeply  the  arrow  may  have  penetrated,  its  point  was 
not  envenomed  —  it  was  shot  in  fair  and  manly  fight,  and  with  the 
twang  of  the  bow  have  fled  the  feelings  which  impelled  it.  The 
gentleman  indignantly  repels  the  charge  of  having  avoided  the 
Senator  from  Missouri  (Mr.  Benton)  and  selected  me  as  his  ad- 
versary from  any  apprehension  of  being  overmatched.  Sir,  when 
I  found  the  gentleman  passing  over  in  silence  the  argument  of  the 
Senator  from  Missouri,  which  had  charged  the  East  with  hostility 
towards  the  West,  and  directing  his  artillery  against  me,  who  had 
made  no  such  charge,  I  had  a  right  to  inquire  into  the  causes 
of  so  extraordinary  a  proceeding.  I  suggested  some  as  probable, 
and  among  them  that  to  which  the  gentleman  takes  such  strong 
exception.  Sir,  has  he  now  given  any  sufficient  reason  for  the  ex- 
traordinary course  of  which  I  have  complained?  At  one  moment 
he  tells  us  he  '  did  not  hear  the  whole  of  the  argument  of  the  gentle- 
man from  Missouri,'  and  again  that  having  found  a  responsible 
indorser  of  the  bill,  he  did  not  think  proper  to  pursue  the  drawer. 
Well,  Sir,  if  the  gentleman  answered  the  arguments  which  he  did 
not  hear,  why  attribute  them  to  me,  whom  he  did  hear  and  by  whom 
they  certainly  were  not  urged?  If  he  was  determined  to  pursue 
the  parties  to  the  bill,  why  attempt  to  throw  the  responsibility  on 
me  who  was  neither  the  drawer  nor  the  indorser  ?  Let  me  once 
more,  Sir,  put  this  matter  on  its  true  footing.  I  will  not  be  forced 
to  assume  a  position  in  which  I  have  not  chosen  to  place  myself. 
Sir,  I  disclaim  any  intention  whatever  in  my  original  remarks 
on  the  public  lands  to  impute  to  the  East  hostility  towards  the 
West.  I  imputed  none.  I  did  not  utter  one  word  to  that  effect. 
I  said  nothing  which  could  be  tortured  into  an  attack  upon  the 
East.     I  did  not  mention  the  ' accursed  tariff' — a  phrase  which  the 


DEBATE   CLOSED   AND   RECORD   SET   STRAIGHT       263 

gentleman  has  put  into  my  mouth.  I  did  not  even  impute  the 
policy  of  Mr.  Rush  to  New  England.  In  alluding  to  that  policy, 
I  noticed  its  source  and  spoke  of  it  as  I  thought  it  deserved.  Sir, 
I  am  aware  that  a  gentleman  who  arises  without  premeditation, 
to  throw  out  his  ideas  on  a  question  before  the  House,  may  use 
expressions  of  the  force  and  extent  of  which  he  may  at  the  time  not 
be  fully  aware.  I  should  not  therefore  rely  so  confidently  on  my 
own  recollections  but  for  the  circumstance  that  I  have  not  found 
one  gentleman  who  heard  my  remarks  (except  the  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts,  himself)  who  supposed  that  one  word  had  fallen 
from  my  lips  that  called  for  a  reply  of  the  tone  and  character  of 
that  which  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  thought  proper  to 
pronounce  —  not  one  who  supposed  that  I  had  thrown  out  any 
imputations  against  the  East,  or  justly  subjected  myself  or  the  South 
to  rebuke,  unless,  indeed,  the  principles  for  which  I  contended 
were  so  monstrous  as  to  demand  unmeasured  reprobation.  Now, 
Sir,  what  were  those  principles?  I  have  already  shown  that, 
whether  sound  or  unsound,  they  are  separated  by  a  '  hair's  breadth' 
from  those  contended  for  by  the  gentleman  himself,  in  1825,  and 
therefore  that  he  of  all  men  had  the  least  right  to  take  exception  to 
them." 

After  a  strong  argument,  to  show  that  the  Constitution  was  the 
work  of  the  States  and  a  compact  between  them  and  the  United 
States,  Hayne  took  the  position  that,  upon  a  difference  between 
the  parties  to  the  contract,  one  party  could  not  decide,  but  the  de- 
cision should  be  referred  to  a  convention  of  the  States. 

Authorities  of  weight  have  sustained  Webster's  criticism  of  this, 
on  the  ground  that  the  creature  of  a  contract  could  not  be  a  party 
to  it;  but  this  is  a  condition  which  seems  to  arise  very  naturally 
in  the  creation  of  a  joint  stock  company  upon  incorporation,  and 
why  not  in  a  government?  There  remained  but  the  peroration, 
and  of  it  Hayne  said:    "The  gentleman  has  made  an  eloquent 


264  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

appeal  to  our  hearts  in  favor  of  the  Union.  Sir,  I  cordially  respond 
to  that  appeal.  I  will  yield  to  no  gentleman  in  sincere  attachment 
to  the  Union ;  but  it  is  a  Union  founded  on  the  Constitution,  and 
not  such  a  Union  as  the  gentleman  would  give  us  that  is  dear  to 
my  heart.  If  this  is  to  become  one  great,  consolidated  Govern- 
ment, swallowing  up  the  rights  of  the  States  and  the  liberties  of  the 
citizens  l  riding  and  ruling  over  the  plundered  ploughman  and  beg- 
gared yeomanry,'  the  Union  will  not  be  worth  preserving.  Sir, 
it  is  because  South  Carolina  loves  the  Union  and  would  preserve 
it  forever  that  she  is  opposing  now,  while  there  is  hope,  those 
usurpations  of  the  Federal  Government  which,  once  established, 
will  sooner  or  later  tear  this  Union  into  fragments.  The  gentle- 
man is  for  marching  under  a  banner  studded  all  over  with  stars  and 
bearing  the  inscription  Liberty  and  Union.  I  had  thought,  Sir 
the  gentleman  would  have  borne  instead  a  standard  displaying 
in  its  ample  folds  a  brilliant  sun,  extending  its  golden  rays  from 
the  centre  to  the  extremities,  in  the  brightness  of  whose  beams  the 
little  stars  hide  their  diminished  heads.  Ours,  Sir,  is  the  banner 
of  the  Constitution,  the  twenty-four  stars  are  there  in  all  their 
undiminished  lustre,  on  it  is  inscribed :  —  Liberty,  the  Constitution, 
Union.  We  offer  up  our  fervent  prayers  to  the  Father  of  Mercies, 
that  it  may  continue  to  wave  for  ages  yet  to  come  over  a  Free, 
Happy  and  United  People." 

With  this,  the  discussion  may  be  said  to  have  closed;  for  Web- 
ster, in  dismissing  it  in  the  few  words  with  which  he  elaborated 
his  weakest  point,  that  the  government  was  not  a  compact,  left 
his  argument  hanging  on  a  broken  hinge,  as  John  Quincy  Adams 
later  expressed  it. 

In  his  extremely  fair  consideration  of  this  debate,  Paul  H. 
Hayne,  whose  opinion  of  "  Webster's  Reply"  is  that,  "  Considered 
from  an  artistic  and  rhetorical  point  of  view,  it  stands  unequalled 
except  by  some  of  the  finest  utterances  of  Burke,"  quotes  the 


DEBATE   CLOSED   AND   RECORD   SET   STRAIGHT       265 

following  contemporaneous  account  of  it  from  the  Philadelphia 
Gazette:  " But  no  report  can  possibly  give  you  an  idea  of  the  deep 
interest  of  the  scene  and  the  peculiar  manner  of  the  two  eminent 
and  eloquent  men  who  were  contending  for  the  mastery.  There 
was  much  of  personality  which  it  is  impossible  to  transmit  to  paper, 
or  even  to  arrest  upon  the  memory;  a  great  deal  of  the  dumb 
show  of  eloquence,  the  expression  of  the  eye  and  the  significant 
gesture,  which  to  be  appreciated  in  their  proper  force  must  be  seen. 
.  .  .  The  opinions  as  to  the  victory  in  this  strife  are  of  course  as 
much  divided  as  are  the  parties  whose  different  views  of  the  Con- 
stitution have  been  severally  maintained,  and  by  worthy  champions. 
The  opposition  party  generally  contend  that  Mr.  Webster  over- 
threw Mr.  Hayne ;  while  on  the  other  hand  the  result  is  triumphantly 
hailed  by  the  friends  of  the  administration  as  a  decisive  victory 
over  the  Eastern  giant.  They  say  that  the  Southern  orator  is  more 
than  a  match  for  the  New  England  lawyer.  Not  inclining  decidedly 
to  either  of  these  opinions,  I  think  those  two  words  fitly  character- 
ize the  eminence  of  either.  Mr.  Hayne  is  truly  an  orator,  full  of 
vehemence,  eloquence  and  passion,  a  correct  and  powerful  rea- 
soner,  with  a  mosL  vivid  imagination,  which  is  under  the  guidance 
of  severe  study  and  correct  taste,  graceful  in  person  and  action 
and  with  a  most  musical  voice.  Mr.  Webster,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  a  lawyer  and  a  great  lawyer,  one  who  has  at  his  immediate 
command  all  the  logic  and  all  the  wariness  of  a  cool  and  practised 
debater  of  extensive  reading  and  much  learning,  of  perfect  self- 
possession  and  always  master  of  the  subject,  or  at  least  of  all  the 
arguments  on  his  own  side  of  the  subject,  and  ready  with  coolness 
and  circumspection  to  seize  rapidly  upon  the  weak  points  of  his 
adversary.  As  a  speaker  he  is  calm,  collected  and  dignified, 
sometimes  energetic,  but  never  impassioned  or  vehement.  His 
voice  is  clear  and  firm,  and  he  manages  it  with  much  ability;  his 
gestures  are  few  and  not  always  graceful,  but  generally  forcible 


266  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

and  impressive.  A  material  contrast  between  these  two  men  is 
in  the  expression  and  mobility  of  their  features.  Mr.  Webster's 
countenance  is  generally  cold,  severe  and  impressive,  which  makes 
the  occasional  sarcasm,  when  accompanied  by  a  sneer  or  a  smile, 
exceedingly  effective.  The  face  of  Mr.  Hayne,  on  the  contrary, 
is  constantly  in  play,  every  varying  emotion  rushes  to  his  counte- 
nance, and  is  there  distinctly  legible.  I  do  not  think  that  Mr. 
Hayne  completely  overthrew  Mr.  Webster,  but  I  am  decidedly 
of  the  opinion  that  Mr.  Webster  did  not  overthrow  Mr.  Hayne."  l 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  in  this  account  from  Philadelphia,  it  is  stated 
that  "  the  result  is  triumphantly  hailed  by  the  friends  of  the  admin- 
istration (the  Jackson  administration)  as  a  decisive  victory  over  the 
Eastern  giant."  Without  giving  any  authority,  Parton  narrates  a 
conversation  between  Jackson  and  Major  Lewis,  in  which  Hayne 
is  described  by  the  latter  as  being  demolished;  while  the  former 
says  that  is  what  he  expected.  In  1833,  however,  the  correspond- 
ent of  the  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer  and  the  editor  of  the 
Augusta  Chronicle  both  declared  that  they  had  seen  a  letter  from 
the  President  to  Hayne  complimenting  him  on  his  speech  in  the 
most  extravagant  terms,  two  members  of  Congress  testifying 
openly  to  the  same  fact  on  the  floor  of  Congress.2  In  addition  to 
this,  the  speech  was  published  and  distributed  through  portions 
of  New  England,  which  would  not  have  taken  place  had  it  not 
been  thought  to  have  had  the  approval  of  the  head  of  the  party. 
Later,  when  nullification  forced  the  reduction  of  the  duties,  with 
an  accompanying  force  bill  as  a  warning  against  a  repetition  of  it, 

1  Paul  H.  Hayne,  "Hayne  and  Legare,"  pp.  53-61. 

2  Daniel  of  Kentucky  "said  that  at  the  time  of  Hayne's  speeches  in  the  Senate, 
both  the  President  and  Senator  Grundy  had  approved  the  position  of  South  Caro- 
lina as  enunciated  by  her  senator.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Hayne  the  former  had  ex- 
pressed himself  in  terms  as  strong  as  language  could  afford.  ..."  Carson 
averred:  "The  President  expressed  his  approval  of  the  speech  to  me  in  person. 
Daniel  said  he  knew,  from  documents  emanating  from  the  President."  —  Harris, 
"Sectional  Struggle,"  p.  331. 


DEBATE   CLOSED   AND    RECORD   SET   STRAIGHT        267 

public  sentiment  veered,  and  Webster's  effort  and  the  man  were  both 
unduly  magnified,  until,  at  the  close  of  his  life,  running  counter  to 
the  sentiment  of  his  own  section,  in  his  love  for  that  same  Union, 
he  was  crowned  with  "Ichabod."  In  his  long  and  brilliant 
career,  however,  this  contest  with  Hayne  seems  to  have  had  a 
particular  interest  for  him,  and  eleven  years  after  the  death  of 
the  latter  he  was  still  dressing  the  points  and  making  more 
brilliant  the  peroration  which  had  saved  him  on  the  whole  con- 
troversy from  the  defeat  which  he  had  sustained  in  part. 


CHAPTER     XV 

SOME  NORTHERN  ESTIMATES  OF  HAYNE.  CHARLESTON'S  AP- 
PRECIATION OF  WEBSTER.  THE  MECHANICS  OF  CHARLES- 
TON. THEIR  BELIEF  IN  THE  UNION  AS  WELL  AS  THE 
LOCOMOTIVE 

Considering  the  political  situation  as  it  was  at  the  time  of 
this  great  debate,  the  student  of  history  will  make  some  surprising 
discoveries.  Mention  has  been  made  of  Hayne's  phenomenal 
popularity  in  the  State  just  prior  to  it;  his  unopposed  reelection  to 
the  Senate  in  1828,  and  his  elevation,  in  1830,  to  the  position  of 
Major-General  of  Militia  in  January.  This  position  in  the  South 
was  no  sinecure;  but  from  the  nature  of  the  State  governments 
at  that  time  a  coveted  distinction,  for  which  there  were  lively 
contests.  The  State  was  at  this  time  pressing  forward  with  great 
earnestness  in  her  effort  to  solve  the  railroad  puzzle,  and  as  she 
advanced  to  the  solution,  pari  passu  with  the  development  of 
nullification,  it  has  been  suggested  that  it  was  a  sympathetic  de- 
velopment. It  is  true  that  Calhoun  appeared  quite  alive  to  the 
benefits  to  be  derived  from  the  extension  of  railroads,  as  soon  as 
they  had  been  demonstrated  as  practicable  transportation  agencies ; 
but  he  never  seems  to  have  considered  them  as  more  than  adjuncts 
to  water  ways  along  great  commercial  lines.  Hayne  had  a  juster 
idea  of  their  immense  value,  and  possibly,  as  has  been  pointed  out 
before,  is  entitled  to  the  very  great  distinction  of  having  anticipated 
by  six  or  seven  years  the  suggestion  in  America  of  operating  them 
by  steam.  And  with  regard  to  these  two  men,  one  put  into  practi- 
cal operation  and  won  a  great  political  victory  by  means  of  nulli- 

268 


SOME   NORTHERN   ESTIMATES   OF   HAYNE  269 

fication;  while  the  other,  called  to  the  most  dangerous  and  re- 
sponsible position,  guided  the  ship  of  state  with  rare  discretion 
and  ability  through  that  short  but  tumultuous  passage.  In  ad- 
dition, it  may  be  claimed  that  the  sentiment  of  the  State  was  un- 
doubtedly for  nullification,  so  that  not  only  the  leaders  but  also  the 
mass  were  for  it.  But  that  is  not  conclusive  The  centre  of  the 
State  was  for  nullification,  but  the  extremes  at  Greenville  and  the 
Peedee  section  against,  and  at  Charleston  where  the  railroad 
movement  was,  the  opposing  forces  almost  balanced  each  other. 
Indeed,  in  the  city  of  Charleston,  Webster's  peroration  so  endeared 
him  to  many,  that  it  drew  together  the  aristocratic  Federalists, 
and  the  Democratic  mechanics  who  had  up  to  this  time  constituted 
the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  Republican  party  there.  At  the  annual 
banquet  of  the  American  Friendly  Society  in  Charleston,  in  Feb- 
ruary,  1830,  Webster  was  toasted  as  "  a  true  patriot  " ;  while  neither 
Calhoun  nor  Hayne  were  mentioned.  A  little  later,  however,  a 
writer  above  the  signature  of  "Old  Times"  criticises  Hayne's 
"decency"  in  attacking  "Federals,"  by  whose  votes,  it  is  declared, 
he  overcame  Senator  Smith.  In  the  country  at  large,  how- 
ever, Hayne's  speech  had  unquestionably  increased  his  fame, 
the  comments  of  many  papers,  opposed  to  his  view,  indicating 
their  appreciation  of  the  man.1  By  the  Boston  merchants  the 
speech  was  so  highly  thought  of  that  it  was  by  them  printed  on 
satin  and  presented  to  the  Senator ; 2  while  in  Maine,  the  Demo- 
cratic members  of  the  Legislature,  in  addition  to  their  thanks, 
ordered  the  publication  and  distribution  of  2000  copies  in  pamphlet 
form,  being  impressed  with  the  correctness  of  the  doctrine  it  con- 
tained  and   designating   it   "as   an   able,   fearless,  unanswerable 

1  Washington  Spectator,  Ulster  Centinel,  New  York  ;  New  York  Gazette,  Baltimore 
Patriot.     City  Gazette,  Feb.  26,  March  4,  13,  1830. 

2  Letter  from  Washington  Alston  Hayne,  grandson  of  R.  Y.  Hayne,  May  23,  1904. 
Simeon  Pratt,  of  Maine,  had  the  speech  printed  on  satin  and  sent  to  Hayne.  The 
Eastern  Argus,  quoted  by  Charleston  Mercury,  June  30,  1830. 


f 


>^\hS 


270  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

defence  of  the  democracy  of  New  England."  1  In  justice,  how- 
ever, to  all  parties,  it  should  be  remembered  that  nullification,  as 
Hayne  had  apologized  for  it,  had  seemed  to  him  to  have  been  to  a 
certain  extent  recognized  by  Jackson,  as  he  had  quoted  him,  in 
his  speech:  "I  regard  an  appeal  to  the  source  of  power  in  cases 
of  real  doubt  as  among  the  most  sacred  of  all  our  obligations.' ' 
But  if  Hayne  was  able  to  draw  encouragement  from  these  various 
sources,  there  was  none  to  be  drawn  from  the  declarations  of  his 
colleague.  Senator  Smith  had  also  participated  in  the  discussion, 
delivering  a  very  strong  and  remarkable  speech.  Quite  temper- 
ate for  him,  and  with  the  exception  of  crediting  his  colleague 
with  a  policy  concerning  the  public  lands  not  warranted  by  Hayne' s 
speech,  for  which  he  was  mildly  corrected  by  the  latter,  there  was 
nothing  in  the  speech,  critical  as  it  was,  which  Hayne  could  well 
object  to.  It  was,  however,  a  direct  attack  on  Calhoun's  party. 
^  It  was  egotistical ;  for  it  was  in  substance  a  claim  that  the  speaker 
was  himself  the  representative  of  the  State  Rights  school,  and 
that  he  had  been  such  when  Calhoun  was  for  a  liberal  construction 
of  the  Constitution.  He  showed  that  in  the  election,  which  placed 
Adams  in  power,  there  had  not  been  two  great  parties  opposed  to 
each  other's  politics;  but  four  parties  centring  around  the  per- 
sonalities of  individuals,  all  of  whom  were  against  State  Rights, 
except  the  party  supporting  Crawford,  with  the  elimination  of 
which  there  was  none,  until  the  attempt,  as  he  characterized  it, 
to  build  up  one,  rushing  to  an  extreme  beyond  the  old  State  Rights 
party.  He  opposed  nullification  as  impractical  and  dangerous. 
He  looked,  in  agreement  with  Grundy  of  Tennessee,  to  a  redress 
of  grievances,  which  he  asserted  did  exist,  by  an  effort  through 
concerted  actions  of  the  States  aggrieved,  nor  did  he  fail  to  point 
out,  that,  however  he  might  speak,  Benton's  vote  had  ever  been  for 
the  tariff. 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  March  15,  1830. 


SOME   NORTHERN   ESTIMATES   OF   HAYNE  271 

While  politics  and  the  politicians  were  thus  readjusting  them- 
selves, a  certain  class  in  Charleston  were  proving  their  faith  by 
their  works.     Three  toasts  offered  by  the  mechanics  of  Charleston 
at  the  annual  celebration  of  their  society  in  this  year  give  us  an 
excellent  idea  of  what  an  admirable  set  of  men  and  estimable 
citizens  they  were  at  that  time.     Other  classes  of  citizens  might 
be  still  looking  askance  at  that  fearfully  and   wonderfully   made 
article,  the  locomotive,  built  upon  the  design  of  one  of  their  number, 
Miller,  and  now  in  the  city  on  exhibition;  while  comforting  them- 
selves with  the  reflection  that  the  railroad  might  yet  be  operated 
by  wind,  as  "with  a  steady  breeze  the  car  sailed  throughout  the 
day"  on  the  lot  where  experiments  were  being  conducted;  but  not 
so  the  Charleston  mechanics ;  they  believed  in  the  locomotive.     It  is 
a  pity  that  all  their  toasts  cannot  be  here  inserted,  they  are  so  full  of 
pith ;  but  four  of  them,  at  least,  are  historical  items  of  value :  "  6.  The 
perpetuity  of  the  Union  of  the  United  States.     11.    The  memory 
of  Oliver  Evans,  the  American  mechanic,  whose  prophecy  of  1786  is 
likely  to  be  fulfilled  in  1830.     12.    The  locomotive  engine.    Favored 
by  a  proper  level  and  a  well-laid  rail,  it  will  soon  bring  Boston, 
Baltimore,  Charleston  and  New  Orleans  into  neighborhood  and 
friendly  intimacy.     13.  The  mechanics  of  Charleston.     Give  them 
but  the  patronage,  and  they  will  compete  in  the  execution  of  their 
work  with  the  world."  *    Nor  was  this  last  any  idle  boast;    for 
within  three  years  Dotterer  proved  it  with  the  locomotive  he  pro- 
duced from  a  Charleston  shop,  the  work  of  Charleston  craftsmen, 
equal  to  anything  from  the  North  or  England.     The  forces,  there- 
fore, which  in  the  main  were  behind  this  industrial  movement  in 
South  Carolina,  were  opposed  to  nullification,  and  for  a  short  time 
blocked  it,  and  if  outside  of  that  State  one-half  the  effort  had 
been  made  to  redress  the  real  grievances  of  the  people  of  the  State, 
which  were  made  as  soon  as  nullification  forced  action,  it  is  doubtful 

1  Ibid.,  Feb.  4,  1830. 


272  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

if  any  man  or  set  of  men  would  have  had  strength  enough  to  push 
the  State  into  this  extreme  act.  But  until  this  threat  was  made, 
not  the  slightest  effort  was  observable. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  session  of  1829-30,  Hayne  and 
Webster  did  not  again  come  into  collision  with  each  other.  Hayne, 
as  chairman  of  the  Naval  Committee,  had  to  fight  through 
two  measures,  which  he  carried  by  large  majorities,  and  Webster 
seems  to  have  tabled  a  bill  looking  to  the  creation  of  a  department 
to  be  presided  over  by  the  Attorney-General. 

In  the  "  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress"  there  is  set  out 
for  April  the  29th  of  this  year  a  most  comprehensive  and  eloquent 
attack  upon  the  Pension  Laws  by  Hayne,  from  which  it  would 
appear  that  upon  this  subject  he  made  two  great  speeches,  —  one  in 
1830  and  one  in  1832.  Asserting  his  reverence  and  affection  for 
the  men  of  the  Revolution,  he  yet  declared  in  this  speech  of  1830, 
that  "when  the  attempt  is  made  to  thrust  into  the  company  of  the 
war-worn  veterans  of  the  Revolution  a  mighty  host,  many  of  whom 
never  even  saw  an  enemy,  when  a  door  is  to  be  opened  wide  enough 
to  admit  mere  sunshine  and  holiday  soldiers,  the  hangers  on  of  the 
camp,  men  of  straw,  substitutes  who  never  enlisted  until  after  the 
preliminaries  of  peace  were  signed:  when,  after  having  omitted 
to  pay  the  debt  of  gratitude  really  due  to  the  honest  veterans  who 
toiled  through  all  the  hardships  and  dangers  of  the  great  conflict, 
you  now  propose  to  give  the  rewards  earned  by  their  blood,  with 
so  profuse  a  hand  as  to  enable  all  who  ever  approached  the  camp, 
to  share  them,  I  must  be  permitted  to  say  that  neither  my  sense 
of  justice  nor  my  devotion  to  Revolutionary  men  will  suffer  me 
to  lend  my  aid  to  the  consummation  of  the  injustice."  He  held 
that:  "The  people  of  the  United  States,  even  before  the  Revolu- 
tion, had  imbibed  a  deep-rooted  and  settled  opposition  to  the  sys- 
tem of  pensions.  In  the  country  from  which  they  had  emigrated, 
they  found  it  operating  as  a  system  of  favoritism,  by  which  those 


SOME    NORTHERN   ESTIMATES   OF   HAYNE  273 

in  authority  made  provision,  at  the  public  expense,  for  their  friends 
and  followers.     In  Great  Britain,  pensions  have  long  been  used  as 
the  ready  means  of  providing  for  the  favored  few  at  the  expense 
of  the  many.     This  system  affords  the  most  convenient  means  of 
appropriating  the  industry  and  capital  of  the  laboring  classes  for 
the  support  of  those  drones  in  society,  the  fruges  nati  consumere 
who  occupy  so  large  a  space  in  all  refined,  civilized  and  Christian 
countries."     After  alluding  to  the  salutary  "  prejudice  against  the 
system  almost  universally  prevailing,"  Hayne  proceeded  to  show 
"that  up  to  1818  the  principle  of  our  pension   system  was  dis- 
ability, a  wise  and  safe  principle,  limited  in  its  extent  and  almost 
incapable  of  abuse."     Tracing  the  development,  he  showed  how, 
from  disability  incurred  in  service,  it  passed  to  all  in  reduced 
circumstances  who  had  served  for  nine  months.     He  discussed 
the  alarm  of  the  country,  when  thirty  thousand  had  at  once  applied, 
and  the  consequent  act  of  1820  against  frauds,  to  stem  the  rapidly 
rising  tide.     Then  analyzing  the  act  and  amendment  before  the 
Senate,   "supported  on  the  avowed  ground,  not  to  change  the 
pension  system  but  merely  to  correct  some  misconstructions," 
he  demonstrated  that  the  scope  of  the  legislation  was  to  change, 
to  extend  and  widen  the  operation.     He  then  showed  the  tendency 
to  raise  the  limit  of  the  fortune  excluding  participants  and  the 
consequent  increase  of  numbers  on  the  roll.     "But,  Sir,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "there  are  higher  considerations  connected  with  the  ques- 
tion than  any  I  have  yet  urged.     I  consider  the  bill  as  a  branch  of 
a  great  system,  calculated  and  intended  to  create  and  perpetuate 
a  permanent  charge  upon  the  Treasury,  with  a  view  to  delay  the 
payment  of  the  public  debt  and  postpone  indefinitely  the  claims 
of  the  people  for  a  reduction  of  taxes,  when  the  debt  shall  be  finally 
extinguished.     It  is  an  important  link  in  the  chain,  by  which  the 
American  System  party  hope  to  bind  the  people  now  and  forever 
to  the  payment  of  the  enormous  duties  deemed  necessary  for 


274  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

the  protection  of  domestic  manufactures.  .  .  .  We  have  schemes 
for  colonization,  education,  distribution  of  surplus  revenues  and 
many  others,  all  admirably  calculated  to  promote  the  great  end,  — 
the  absorption  of  the  public  revenue.  But,  Sir,  of  all  the  measures 
devised,  this  grand  pension  system  got  up  last  year  and  revived 
during  the  present  session  is  by  far  the  most  specious,  the  most 
ingeniously  contrived  and  the  best  calculated  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  object.  Here  gentlemen  are  supplied  with  a  fine 
topic  for  declamation,  —  'gratitude  for  Revolutionary  services,' 
'the  claims  of  the  poor  soldier,'  etc.,  —  these  are  the  topics  which, 
it  is  imagined,  will  carry  away  the  feelings  of  the  people  and  recon- 
cile them  to  a  measure  which  must  unquestionably  establish  a 
permanent  charge  upon  the  Treasury  to  an  enormous  amount,  and 
thereby  furnish  a  plausible  excuse  for  keeping  up  the  system  of 
high  duties.  .  .  .  But  there  is  one  fact  which  speaks  volumes  on  this 
subject.  How  comes  it  that  this  spirit  of  gratitude  for  Revolution- 
ary services  should  have  slumbered  for  fifty  years  ?  .  .  .  Sir,  the 
reason  is  obvious.  The  period  for  the  final  extinction  of  the  public 
debt  is  at  hand  .  .  .  the  existence  of  a  surplus  must  by  some 
means  or  other  be  prevented ;  and  this  must  be  accomplished  with- 
out any  reduction  of  duties.  The  friends  of  the  system  have  there- 
fore gone  forth  upon  the  highways,  and  'all  are  bidden  to  the 
feast.'" 

Hayne's  reputation  in  the  nation  now  stood  very  high.  To 
cite  comments  of  the  Northern  press,  the  correspondent  of  the 
Baltimore  Patriot  declared  that,  next  to  Webster,  he  was  the 
strongest  man  in  the  Senate;  the  Ulster  Centinel,  that  "he  always 
commands  attention  and  seldom  fails  to  convince,  that  South  Caro- 
lina can  well  be  proud  of  him";  and  the  New  York  Gazette  gave 
a  most  interesting  description  of  the  man,  his  mental  and  moral 
qualities,  his  manner  and  his  force  in  debate,  in  the  following 
sketch:    "To  describe  the  peculiarities  of  my  present  subject  is 


SOME   NORTHERN  ESTIMATES   OF   HAYNE  275 

a  more  difficult  task  than  might  be  supposed  by  those  who  have 
been  in  the  habit  of  listening  to  Mr.  Hayne.  He  is  one  of  those 
speakers  who  so  generally  enlist  the  feelings  of  their  hearers  by 
the  contagious  power  of  his  own  enthusiasm  that  even  at  a  distance, 
and  after  a  long  interval  of  time,  I  find  it  difficult  so  far  to  set 
aside  the  impressions  produced  by  his  oratory  as  to  deal  fairly 
with  his  capacity,  and  detail  with  an  unprejudiced  mind  his  quali- 
ties as  an  orator  and  a  legislator.  In  some  of  the  high  essentials  of 
eloquence,  Mr.  Hayne  has  few  superiors.  In  fervency  and  gen- 
erous enthusiasm,  few  equals.  Although  the  writer  of  these  lines 
has  often  differed  from  him  in  the  views  he  has  taken  of  questions 
of  public  policy,  still  of  the  honest  convictions  entertained  by  Mr. 
Hayne,  of  the  correctness  of  his  opinions,  no  one  who  has  heard  him 
express  them  could  feel  a  doubt.  His  manner  is  the  very  index 
of  sincerity.  His  leading  characteristic  as  a  speaker  is  zealous 
intrepidity.  He  is  always  ready  to  defend  his  sentiments  or  to  aid 
in  the  support  of  measures  which  he  has  once  advocated,  and  his 
efforts  are  devoted  in  the  true  spirit  of  chivalry  with  all  his  heart. 
He  is  no  halfway  advocate,  and  no  mental  reservations  neutralize 
the  effects  of  his  exertions  or  throw  a  doubt  on  their  good  faith. 
His  capacity  in  desultory  debate  is  scarcely  equalled  in  Congress, 
and  hence  some  of  his  most  powerful  speeches  have  been  those 
which  were  totally  unpremeditated.  In  person  Mr.  Hayne  is 
slightly  above  the  middle  size.  His  face,  except  when  in  motion, 
is  not  very  remarkable,  although  its  expression  is  pleasing.  His 
complexion  is  sallow.  His  cheeks  round  and  full,  with  rather  a 
broad  mouth ;  his  forehead  is  not  peculiarly  large  or  capacious,  in 
comparison  with  his  countenance;  his  eyes  are  gray,  full  of  fire  and 
animation,  and  the  most  expressive  feature  in  his  face;  his  hair 
is  light  brown,  straight  and  carelessly  worn.  In  fact,  at  first  sight, 
his  person  does  not  indicate  the  character  of  the  man,  But  in  the 
warmth  of  debate,  how  do  his  features  brighten  with  feeling  and 


276  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

intelligence.  How  do  his  eyes  sparkle  with  a  light  as  it  were  not  their 
own.  His  countenance,  when  once  the  mind  is  loosened,  seems 
full  of  intellect,  and  the  continual  play  of  his  features  justly  indi- 
cates the  susceptibilities  of  the  inner  man.  His  voice  is  clear  and 
flexible,  although  without  great  depth  or  fulness  of  tone,  and  he  has 
it  under  perfect  control.  When  once  in  the  full  flow  of  utterance, 
it  goes  on  uninterrupted  by  physical  deficiencies  and  without  the 
slightest  harshness  or  irrelevancy  of  intonation.  .  .  .  His  fancy  is 
chaste,  but  glowing.  His  metaphors  are  sometimes  remarkably 
happy,  and  his  imagination  never  outrages  common  sense.  If  he 
has  a  fault,  it  is  that  his  ardor  occasionally,  although  not  often, 
carries  him  too  far  into  speculation  not  entirely  relevant  to  the 
subject,  and  that,  by  the  extension  of  his  digressions,  his  hearers 
occasionally  lose  sight  of  his  main  object."  l 

If  we  compare  this  sketch  by  a  fairly  disposed  political  opponent 
with  that  of  the  correspondent  of  the  Philadelphia  paper,  who  de- 
scribed the  debate  and  the  portrait  by  Benton,  who,  although  a  de- 
voted friend,  was  yet  opposed  to  Hayne  on  the  question  of  nulli- 
fication, while  united  with  him  on  the  other  questions  involved, 
we  find  a  general  resemblance,  in  spite  of  differences,  all  indicating 
the  object  of  their  speculations  as  one  far  beyond  the  ordinary  and 
a  great  force  in  national  legislation.  History  makes  but  slight 
mention  of  one  other  participant  in  the  great  debate,  who  up  to  that 
time  had  been  recognized  as,  next  to  Hayne,  the  most  representative 
Jackson  Democrat  in  the  Senate.  Livingston  of  Louisiana  had 
delivered  a  strong  speech  and  a  most  interesting  one,  as  it  sub- 
sequently became  the  basis  of  Jackson's  celebrated  proclamation. 
While  opposing  Hayne,  he  had,  to  a  certain  degree,  defended, 
excused  or  apparently  sympathized  with  some  of  his  declarations. 
The  true  explanation  of  this  extraordinary  state  of  affairs  lay  in 
this,  no  prominent  individual  outside  of  South  Carolina  believed 

1  New  York  Gazette,  March  4,  1830,  quoted  by  City  Gazette,  March  12, 1830. 


SOME   NORTHERN   ESTIMATES   OF   HAYNE  277 

that  nullification  would  ever  be  attempted  because  of  the  firm 
conviction  that  any  party,  attempting  it,  would  be  swept  out  of 
power,  in  any  State.  And  the  evidence  for  this,  as  far  as  South 
Carolina  was  concerned,  was  that  Senator  Smith,  the  Radical,  had 
in  his  speech  put  himself  closer  to  Webster  than  Hayne  in  the 
great  debate.  The  two  oldest  and  strongest  papers  in  the  State  of 
South  Carolina  were  also  absolutely  against  any  such  policy;  while 
the  President,  a  South  Carolinian  himself,  was  believed  to  be  the 
strongest  political  force  in  the  State.  Nor  had  Calhoun  as  yet 
openly  associated  himself  with  the  policy,  although  it  was  believed 
by  some  that  he  was  the  instigator.  Of  the  powerful,  fearless 
and  sincere  determination  of  the  mass  of  the  voters  to  emancipate 
themselves  from  the  oppressions  of  the  tariff  at  any  risk,  there  was 
little  or  no  knowledge. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

D.    E.    HUGER    DEFEATS    THE    ATTEMPT    TO    NULLIFY    IN    1830 

In  Charleston  and  the  immediate  neighborhood,  the  Unionists 
had  at  this  time  able  leaders.  Joel  R.  Poinsett,  J.  R.  Pringle, 
B.  F.  Hunt  and  B.  F.  Dunkin  were  all  men  of  influence  in  the 
State,  and  the  first  named  of  some  reputation  in  national  affairs 
and  in  former  days  close  to  Calhoun.  William  Aiken,  the  head 
of  the  railroad,  and  two  younger  men,  destined  at  a  later  day  to 
rise  to  a  much  higher  position  in  the  public  eye,  Hugh  S.  Legare 
and  C.  G*.  Memminger,  were  also  against  nullification.  But  the 
two  ablest  and  most  eminent  opponents  to  the  policy  were  un- 
doubtedly James  L.  Petigru  and  D.  E.  Huger:  Petigru,  ardent, 
impetuous,  full  of  the  fire  of  love  and  hate,  not  at  all  averse  to  the 
stir  of  contest ;  an  incomparable  wit,  to  whom  the  humor  of  a  situ- 
ation involving  his  own  discomfiture  was  as  keenly  appreciated 
as  one  in  which  an  adversary  alone  was  affected ;  a  great  lawyer, 
and  yet  so  devoted  to  his  ideal,  the  Federal  Union,  that  his  political 
life  seems  to  have  been  but  a  repetition  of  failures  from  the  con- 
stancy with  which  he  clung  to  it;  D.  E.  Huger,  quietly,  almost 
gently,  breasting  the  tide  of  popular  sentiment,  yet  with  a  firm- 
ness and  power  surpassed  by  no  man  who  has  ever  risen  to 
prominence  in  the  politics  of  South  Carolina;  capable  as  few 
men  were  of  seeing  the  good  in  an  opponent;  the  discreet  and 
wise  adviser  of  some  who  had  passed  beyond  him,  with  favoring 
opportunity.  Such  were  the  Union  leaders.  And  against  them, 
apparently,  but  two  men  of  prominence  in  Charleston,  —  James 
Hamilton,  Jr.,  and  H.  L.  Pinckney.     Hamilton  had  succeeded 

278 


HUGER   DEFEATS   ATTEMPT  TO   NULLIFY   IN   1830     279 

Lowndes  and  acquitted  himself  with  ability,  in  a  seat  where  the 
contrast  to  his  predecessor  would  have  destroyed  a  weaker  man. 
He  was  a  close,  intimate  and  personal  friend  of  Hayne,  and  almost 
as  close  to  Calhoun  as  the  latter.     H.  L.  Pinckney  had  been  an 
even  more  valuable  assistant  of  Calhoun,  at  whose  command  he 
had  placed  all  the  resources  of  a  very  remarkable  intellect,  and  for 
whose  advancement  he  had  contended  as  no  other  individual  of 
the  State  or  nation  could  claim  to  have  done,  and,  as  it  must  also 
be  admitted,  to  the  destruction  of  any  claim,  on  his  own  part,  to 
political  consistency.     His  extraordinary  command  of  words,  and 
a  rare  power  of  striking  and  picturesque  expression,  gave  him 
great  strength  with  the  multitude.     Hayne,  although  with  this 
faction,  was  not  as  yet  openly  allied,  and  was,  apparently,  still 
hoping  that  the  breach  might  be  filled.     Of  the  old  leaders,  the 
three  great  Pinckneys  were  all  dead,  —  Charles  Cotesworth  and 
Charles  having  followed  Lowndes   in   three  years,  and   Thomas 
having  survived  him  but  six;    while  Langdon  Cheves  had  been 
away  from  the  State  for  eleven  years.     Yet  the  sentiment  given  by 
such  a  man  as  Cheves  had  shown  himself  to  be,  in  the  various 
stations  in  which  he  had  served,  might  well  have  arrested  attention 
from  the  thoughtful ;  for  he  went  farther  than  Hayne,  as  one  of  his 
statements  expresses :  "  The  Union.     May  it  be  preserved,  but  if  it 
be,  it  will  be  by  a  reform  which  shall  make  it  serve  the  great  pur- 
poses for  which  it  was  instituted,  the  equal  security  and  protection 
of  the  rights,  the  interests,  the  honor,  the  feelings  of  all  parts  of  the 
confederacy."  *      Dr.  Cooper,  one  of  the  extremists,  also  accen- 
tuated the  difference  between  Hayne  and  the  leaders  of  the  State 
Rights  party  2  by  declaring  that  if  Senator  Hayne,  "in  his  very  able 
reply,  apologizes"  for  his  (Cooper's)  expression,  "it  is   time  to 
calculate  the  value  of  the  Union,"  he  (Cooper)  will  not.     Yet  as 
late  as  June  the  30th,  an  old  friend  and  associate  of  former  days 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  June  11,  1830.  2  Ibid.,  March  24,  1830. 


280  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

knits  together  praise  of  the  disinterested  and  independent  course 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  a  sentiment  of  Hayne, 
expressed  in  a  letter  to  the  Eastern  Argus  of  Maine,  deprecating 
sectional  differences;  while  at  the  Hayne-Drayton  dinner,  Senator 
Smith  is  one  of  those  toasted.  But  this  dinner  marks  the  last 
attempt  to  keep  up  the  appearance  of  unity  in  aim  and  purpose; 
for  J.  L.  Petigru,  although  closely  allied  in  business  with  James 
Hamilton,  Jr. ,  refused  to  attend,  and  William  Gilmore  Simms,  then 
editing  the  City  Gazette,  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  while  the 
voting  strength  of  the  city  is  2800,  only  430  tickets  were  taken  up 
by  the  doorkeepers  at  the  dinner. 

A  letter  from  Jackson  of  date  August  25,  1830,  replying  to  a 
communication  from  William  B.  Lewis,  enclosing  a  letter  from 
South  Carolina,  throws  some  faint  light  on  the  confused  politics  of 
the  time.  The  President  says:  "Have  read  and  noted  the  letter 
enclosed  from  the  Gentleman  in  South  Carolina.  I  was  aware  of 
the  hostility  of  the  influential  character  alluded  to.  I  sincerely 
regret  the  course  taken  by  Hamilton  &  Hayne.  The  people  of 
South  Carolina  will  not,  nay  cannot,  sustain  such  nulifying  doctrines. 
The  Carolinians  are  a  patriotic  and  high-minded  people,  and  they 
prize  their  liberty  too  high  to  jeopardize  it  at  the  shrine  of  an  am- 
bitious Demagogue,  whether  a  native  of  Carolina  or  any  other 
country.  This  influential  character  in  this  heat  has  led  Hamilton 
and  Hayne  astray,  and  it  will,  I  fear,  lead  to  the  injury  of  Hamilton 
&  lose  him  his  election.  But  the  ambitious  Demagogue  alluded 
to  would  sacrifice  friends  and  country,  and  move  heaven  and  earth 
to  gratify  his  unholy  ambition.  His  course  will  prostrate  him  here 
as  well  as  everywhere  else.  Our  friend,  Mr.  Grundy,  says  he 
will  abandon  him  unless  he  can  satisfy  him  that  he  has  used 
his  influence  to  put  down  this  nulifying  doctrine  which  threatens 
to  dissolve  our  happy  union."  * 

1  Original,  Lenox  Library,  New  York. 


HUGER   DEFEATS   ATTEMPT  TO   NULLIFY  IN   1830     281 

By  this  time,  however,  the  Union  party  had  organized,  and  they 
brought  forward  J.  R.  Pringle  as  an  opponent  to  H.  L.  Pinckney  for 
the  Intendancy,  winning  the  election  by  80  votes.  Following  up 
their  victory,  they  put  out  a  strong  ticket  for  the  Legislature: 
D.  E.  Huger,  J.  J.  Bulow,  Joel  R.  Poinsett,  C.  G.  Memminger, 
John  Shoemaker,  B.  F.  Hunt,  John  Johnson,  Jr.,  H.  A.  De  Saussure, 
B.  F.  Dunkin,  Hugh  S.  Legare,  Elias  B.  Hort,  Edward  J.  Pringle, 
M.  I.  Keith,  J.  W.  Schmidt,  Rene  Godard  and  William  Aiken 
for  the  House  and  J.  L.  Petigru  for  the  State  Senate,  both  factions 
having  indorsed  Drayton  for  Congress. 

Although  he  had  as  yet  taken  no  pronounced  position  in  the 
contest,  and  later  deprecated  the  division,  yet  a  private  letter  from 
Hayne  to  Colonel  Thomas  Pinckney  shows  that  his  sympathies 
were  altogether  with  the  State  Rights  party,  even  at  this  early 
date.     The  letter  is  dated  Charleston,  September  12,  1830. 

"  My  dear  Sir  :  — 

"I  have  forwarded  to  Mr.  Sass  by  this  day's  mail  a  letter  of 
introduction  to  the  Postmaster- General  according  to  your  request. 
I  also  send  you  our  State  Rights  Manifesto,  which  be  so  good  as  to 
show  to  your  neighbors.  As  to  the  notice  in  the  Mercury,  it  was 
neither  Editorial  nor  did  it  indicate  any  disposition  of  the  State 
Rights  Party  to  amalgamate  with  that  Gentleman  or  his  friends. 
We  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  It  came  from  one  of  the  enemy 
(as  I  am  told)  and  was  only  inserted  to  prevent  that  gentleman 
from  having  an  excuse  for  going  over  to  the  other  party  in  the 
election  then  pending.  Pinckney,  I  presume,  did  not  suppose  it 
would  be  attributed  to  him  by  any  one.  The  character  of  the 
piece  marked  its  origin.  We  have  a  difficult  and  delicate  part  to 
act  here.  When  such  men  as  Lee,  Huger  &  Petigru  appeal  to 
the  fears  of  the  common  people,  I  do  not  know  what  we  can  expect 
but  the  most  abject  spirit  of  submission.     The  great  mass  every- 


282  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

where  never  will  act  boldly  if  their  leaders  desert  them.  It  is 
true  now,  as  in  '76,  that  men  will  always  be  inclined  rather  to  submit 
to  evils  than  to  attempt  to  redress  themselves.  Great  indeed  is 
the  responsibility  of  those  who,  at  this  crisis,  shall  paralyze  the 
efforts  of  South  Carolina;  for  if  we  now  abandon  our  grounds, 
they  can  never  be  resumed  even  under  greater  violations  of  our 
rights.  We  shall  use  every  honorable  effort  to  retrieve  our  affairs 
at  the  general  election  in  October.  We  shall  be  compelled  to  run 
on  an  unpledged  ticket  &  we  hope  our  adversaries  may  insist  on 
pledges  against  convention.  Our  opponents  are  not  without  their 
difficulties  too.  The  Bennett,  Steedman  &  Hunt  Party  who  com- 
pose a  majority  of  the  new  Union  party  will  insist  on  leading  & 
will  claim  a  place  on  the  ticket  for  Hunt,  Lance,  Wilson,  Magwood, 
etc.,  etc.  This  claim,  if  refused  by  Huger  &  Petigru,  breaks  them 
to  pieces  &  if  granted,  leaves  us  an  opening  to  attack  &  defeat 
them.  Our  friends  in  the  interior  must  not  expect  too  much  of  us. 
We  shall  do  our  best  under  the  circumstances  in  which  we  are 
placed.  Mr.  Cheves  &  Hamilton  visit  Pendleton  in  October. 
The  former  will  want  a  good  settled  farm.  Do  keep  a  lookout 
for  him  &  lend  him  your  aid.  My  family  and  your  friends  here 
are  generally  well.     With  our  regards  to  your  family  &  all  friends 

believe  me  to  be, 

"Very  truly  yours 

"Robert  Y.  Hayne."  * 

This  letter  is  not  sanguine  in  tone,  for  Hayne  gauged  the  senti- 
ment of  the  community  correctly,  the  Unionists  electing  eleven  of 
the  sixteen  representatives  to  the  Legislature;  but  their  victory 
was  not  as  complete  as  they  had  desired,  for  they  failed  to  prevent 
the  election  of  H.  L.  Pinckney  to  the  House ;  while  Petigru,  their 
candidate  for  the  State  Senate,  was  defeated.     Throughout  the 

1  Original  in  possession  of  Miss  Mary  Pinckney,  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 


HUGER   DEFEATS   ATTEMPT  TO   NULLIFY   IN   1830     283 

State  the  nullifiers  were  more  successful,  and  under  the  leadership 
of  W.  C.  Preston,  A.  P.  Butler  and  Governor  S.  D.  Miller  were 
strong  enough  to  raise  Pinckney  to  the  Speakership.  But  although 
Senator  Smith  had  announced  his  opposition  to  the  calling  of  a 
convention  for  the  purpose  of  nullification,  some  preliminary  work 
had  to  be  done  before  he  could  be  opposed  with  any  certainty 
of  success. 

Hugh  S.  Legare  and  John  Belton  O'Neall,  both  Unionists,  were 
raised  respectively  to  the  Attorney- Generalship  and  a  judgeship. 
Then,  in  the  Senate,  the  seat  of  Harleston  Read,  and,  in  the  House, 
the  seat  of  Rene  Godard,  were  attacked.  The  fight  over  Godard's 
seat  brought  into  notice  prominently  a  young  man  who  soon  made 
his  influence  distinctively  felt.  Barnwell  Smith,  as  he  was  then 
called,  for  the  family  had  not  yet  taken  the  name  of  Rhett,  moved 
that  the  seat  be  declared  vacated ;  but  Judge  Huger,  upon  whom, 
single-handed,  the  leadership  of  the  Unionist  forces  now  depended, 
succeeded  in  securing  a  reference  to  the  committee  on  Privileges 
and  Elections,  which,  on  a  vote  of  41  to  3,  reported  in  favor  of 
vacating  the  seat,  which  report  the  House  with  but  one  dissenting 
vote  sustained.  Most  men  would  have  abandoned  a  fight  at  this 
stage;  but  Judge  Huger  secured  a  reconsideration  of  the  vote, 
to  enable  him  to  address  the  House  in  favor  of  Godard's  right  to 
his  seat.  The  House  finally  refused  to  reverse  itself,  but  by  a 
vote  of  only  69  to  50  1  in  favor  of  such  action.  With  two  members 
unseated  and  Legare's  seat  vacated  by  his  resignation,  the  Legis- 
lature then  proceeded  to  the  election  of  a  senator,  and  Governor 
S.  D.  Miller  was  elected  by  81  votes  to  77  for  Senator  Smith, 
and  one  blank.2 

Smith  had  been  defeated  by  Hayne,  because  he  was  too  much 
of  a  Radical,  apparently  now,  because  not  quite  enough.  In  the 
kaleidoscopic  changes  which  were  taking  place  in  the  political  views 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Nov.  29,  1830.  2  City  Gazette,  Dec.  3,  1830. 


284  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

of  individuals  as  the  positions  of  parties  shifted,  a  reference  made 
by  Hugh  S.  Legare  brings  most  forcibly  to  the  consideration  of  the 
student  of  history  a  great  loss  which  the  State  had  sustained  some 
eight  years  previous.  At  the  '"76"  Association  dinner,  where  the 
sentiment  in  favor  of  nullification  was  being  cultivated  sedulously, 
Legare  offered  this  sentiment,  "The  memory  of  William  Lowndes, 
With  all  the  moderation  which  wisdom  inspires,  with  all  the  energy 
which  virtue  needs,  and  with  all  the  influence  that  waits  upon  both 
would  that  fate  had  spared  him  for  the  times  for  which  nature 
seemed  to  have  formed  him."  l 

South  Carolina  was  not  yet  ready  to  nullify.  The  venerable 
Sumter,  appealed  to,  advised  against  the  calling  of  a  convention 
to  do  so,  giving  as  his  reasons  first :  that  joint  action  was  better 
than  independent;  and  second,  that  as  the  Legislature  had  the 
power,  there  was  no  need  to  call  a  convention  to  do  what  was  in 
the  power  of  the  Legislature  to  accomplish.  The  faction  which 
was  for  nullification,  however,  determined  to  test  their  strength,  and 
Preston,  accordingly,  introduced  a  set  of  resolutions  concluding  as 
follows :  "Resolved  that  the  State  having  long  submitted  to  the  evil 
in  the  hope  of  redress  from  the  wisdom  and  the  justice  of  the  Federal 
Government  doth  no  longer  perceive  any  ground  to  entertain  such 
hopes  and  therefore,  that  it  is  necessary  and  expedient  that  a  con- 
vention of  the  people  of  the  State  be  assembled  to  meet,  on  the 
adjournment  of  the  ensuing  session  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  into  consideration  the  said  violation 
of  the  Constitutional  Compact  and  devising  the  mode  and  measures 
of  redress."  2 

In  opposition  to  this,  Huger  offered  an  amendment,  in  substance, 
declaring  that  if  the  tariff  acts  of  1824  and  1828  were  not  repealed 
or  modified,  that  the  Governor  be  authorized  to  correspond  with 
other  Governors  of  other  States,  and  to  take  all  steps  necessary  to  a 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  July  7,  1830.  2  Ibid.,  Dec.  6,  1830. 


HUGER   DEFEATS   ATTEMPT   TO   NULLIFY   IN   1830      285 

convention  of  the  aggrieved  States,  for  such  redress  as  they  should 
see  proper.  On  a  previous  motion  to  indefinitely  postpone  the 
call  for  a  convention,  the  motion  had  been  defeated  by  a  vote  in  the 
House  of  39  to  55,  something  like  thirty  members  refraining  from 
voting,  of  which  five  now  voted  for  the  calling  of  the  convention, 
while  seventeen  voted  against.  The  resolution  of  Preston,  there- 
fore, not  only  lacked  the  two-thirds  necessary  for  a  call,  but  came 
perilously  near  a  defeat,  the  vote  being  60  for,  56  against.1  The 
man  who  had  defeated  the  call  was  D.  E.  Huger.  Of  all  the  great 
men  of  South  Carolina,  he  is  least  known ;  but  if  he  had  received 
any  reasonable  support  from  the  general  government,  he  might 
have  prevented  nullification. 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  20,  1830. 


CHAPTER    XVII 

the  breach  between  calhoun  and  jackson.  mcduffie  pre- 
cipitates nullification  against  the  approval  of  cal- 
houn, hayne  expounds  its  practicability  from  its 
previous  use.  calhoun's  logical  exposition,  sumter's 
solemn  appeal 

At  the  beginning  of  the  year  183 1  it  began  to  be  rumored  that 
a  breach  had  occurred  in  the  relations  of  the  President  and  Vice- 
President.  As  late  as  the  spring  of  the  previous  year  their  attitude 
towards  each  other  had  been  friendly;  for  in  March  of  that  year 
Calhoun  had  claimed  that  he  and  his  friends  in  the  Senate  were 
actuated  by  the  ambition  "  to  carry  the  General  through  with  glory, 
and  while  we  see  with  pain  every  false  move,  we  have  never  per- 
mitted our  feelings  to  be  alienated  for  a  moment."  1  In  May  he 
thinks  it  doubtful  whether  General  Jackson  will  offer  again  or  not, 
although  he  informs  Van  Deventer  that,  "Some  who  regard  their 
own  interests  more  than  his  just  fame  are  urging  him  to  offer ;  but 
it  will  be  difficult  to  reconcile  the  course  to  his  previous  declara- 
tions, unless  there  should  be  the  strongest  considerations  of  the 
public  good  to  justify  him."  2  By  August,  as  we  have  seen,  Jack- 
son's reply  to  the  letter  sent  him  by  Lewis  containing  information 
or  accusation  of  unfriendliness  to  him  by  one,  whom  the  description 
pretty  well  establishes  as  Calhoun,  indicates  beyond  any  doubt 
his  readiness  to  believe  any  charge  against  Calhoun,  although  he 
had  not  yet  submitted  to  him  his  request  for  an  explanation  con- 
cerning the  matter  which  became  the  supposed  ground  of  their 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  pp.  271-272.  2  Ibid.,  p.  272. 

286 


THE   BREACH   BETWEEN   CALHOUN  AND   JACKSON     287 

quarrel.  Later  in  the  year  he  makes  his  demand  for  explanation 
of  Calhoun's  attitude  in  1818,  to  which  Calhoun  replies  in  a  long 
letter,  the  point  of  which  is  that  Jackson  should  not  have  assumed 
that  he,  Calhoun,  approved  his  course  in  18 18,  etc.  To  all  of 
which  Jackson  abruptly  replies,  that  his  grievance  is  that  he  has 
been  all  along  kept  under  a  delusion  as  to  Calhoun's  conduct 
towards  him  on  that  occasion,  and  by  February,  1831,  the  volumi- 
nous correspondence  is  spread  before  the  public,  whose  comments 
upon  it  seem  to  be  quite  mild,  Calhoun's  opponents  in  the  State 
contenting  themselves  with  the  declaration  that  they  leave  it  to 
Duff  Green  to  call  it  a  complete  vindication.  Still  Calhoun  refrains 
from  any  open  adhesion  to  nullification,  although  as  early  as 
January,  1831,  he  had  written  Hammond,  "Nothing  must  be 
omitted  to  unite  and  strengthen  her  (South  Carolina),  for  on  her 
union  and  firmness,  at  this  time,  the  liberty  of  the  whole  country 
in  no  small  degree  depends,"  l  and  it  was  McDuffie  in  his  fiery 
speech  of  May,  1831,  who  committed  the  party  to  nullification. 
Calhoun  did  not  approve  of  McDuffie's  course ;  his  letter  to  Samuel 
D.  Ingham  of  June  16  indicates  that  his  hand  was  thereby  forced 
before  he  was  ready  to  play  it.  He  gives  a  clear  statement  of 
his  views,  and  if  the  letter  which  he  mentions  as  having  been  sent 
to  Hamilton  on  the  same  subject  had  been  preserved,  his  own  plan 
would  be  before  us.  But  the  party  being  now  committed  to  nul- 
lification, Hayne  was  called  upon  to  put  it  before  the  public.  His 
speech  on  July  4,  1831,  does  not  seem  up  to  his  usual  standard, 
and  almost  suffers  by  contrast  with  the  speech  of  Drayton,  driven  by 
McDuffie's  violence  into  the  arms  of  the  Union  party.  Yet  it  gives 
us  some  interesting  facts.  Alluding  to  Stephen  Elliott,  whose 
death  had  taken  place  in  the  beginning  of  the  previous  year,  he 
speaks  of  the  memorial  of  1820  as  "an  enduring  monument  of 
the  wisdom  of  that  most  estimable  man  who  died  as  he  had  lived, 

1  Ibid.,  p.  281. 


288  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

without  a  rival  in  the  confidence  and  affections  of  his  fellow-citi- 
zens," x  and  he  claims  that  there  is  scarcely  a  district  in  the  State 
which  has  not  since  forwarded  similar  memorials  against  the 
tariff  to  Congress  in  the  ten  years  which  have  followed.  Then  he 
cites  the  action  of  succeeding  Legislatures,  all  of  which  have  been 
unheeded.  He  denies  that  nullification  tends  to  dissolve  the  Union, 
and,  avoiding  metaphysical  subtleties  of  discussion,  produces  an 
argument,  based  on  known  facts,  difficult  to  answer.  "  Is 
Georgia  in  the  Union  now  —  who  doubts  it  ?  And  yet,  do  we 
not  all  know  that  she  has  Nullified  several  treaties  and  acts 
of  Congress,  making  them  void  within  her  limits,  by  acts  of  her  own 
Legislature  ?  Did  not  Pennsylvania,  in  the  Olmstead  case,  Nullify 
the  proceedings  of  the  Federal  Court,  and  remain  for  ten  years  in 
possession  of  the  fruits  of  her  Nullifying  act,  and  was  she  all  that 
time  actually  out  of  the  Union?  If  so,  never  having  been  read- 
mitted, she  is  out  of  it  still."  In  answer  to  the  charge  that  the 
Nullification  party  or  the  State  Rights  party,  as  they  called  them- 
selves, were  composed  of  young  men,  he  claims  that  it  had  had  the 
support  of  General  Thomas  Pinckney,  who  died  in  1828  and  still 
had,  at  the  time  of  his  speech,  Captain  Richard  B.  Baker,  "the  last 
survivor  of  the  battle  of  Fort  Moultrie,"  Major  James  Hamilton 
of  Pennyslvania,  the  father  of  the  Governor  "who  assumed  his 
arms  at  the  heights  of  Dorchester,  and  only  laid  them  down  when 
the  last  gun  was  fired  on  the  plains  of  Carolina,"  Keating  Simons, 
"the  friend  and  companion  of  Marion,"  and  he  "who  bears  upon 
his  manly  form  the  deep  impression  of  many  a  wound,  all  received 
in  front,  and  who  stampt  upon  the  events  of  the  Southern  war 
the  might  of  his  unconquerable  arm  and  the  majesty  of  his  own 
great  name,  Carolina's  Game  Cock  —  the  immortal  Sumter." 

The  effect  of  this  style  of  argument  upon  the  mass  of  voters 
was  soon  noticeable.      But  further  it  was  apparent  that  what 

1  Hayne's  Speech,  4th  of  July,  183 1.     Published  by  A.  E.  Miller,  p.  13. 


THE   BREACH   BETWEEN   CALHOUN  AND    JACKSON     289 

Hayne  desired  was  to  afford  relief  from  an  intolerable  situation, 
and  if  relief  could  be  obtained  by  any  other  way  than  nullification, 
his  advice  was,  "  by  all  means,  try  it."  "  If  it  be  deemed  necessary 
to  make  a  last  appeal  to  your  sister  States,  —  the  oppressors  and 
the  oppressed,  —  let  that  appeal  be  made,  solemnly  warning 
the  former  of  the  inevitable  consequences  of  continuing  to  exert 
an  unwarrantable  control  over  our  domestic  pursuits;  and  affec- 
tionately appealing  to  the  latter  for  that  countenance  and  support 
which  we  have  a  right  to  expect  at  their  hands.  But  should  the 
argument  be  exhausted,  should  all  our  efforts  utterly  fail  and 
the  only  alternative  left  be  submission  to  this  usurpation  of  power, 
or  the  interposition  of  the  sovereign  authority  of  the  State,  I  say, 
with  Mr.  Jefferson,  'there  ought  to  be  no  hesitation.'  But  this, 
we  are  told,  will  be  Nullification.  Be  it  so.  .  .  .  We  will  take 
any  remedy  that  may  be  proposed  to  us  short  of  disunion;  but 
should  it  come  finally  to  this,  that  we  must  either  submit,  inter- 
pose the  sovereign  authority  of  the  State  —  or  secede,  and  we 
are  determined  not  to  submit,  what  possible  objection  can  any  one 
then  have  to  this  interposition  (if  it  were  merely  an  experiment  to 
save  the  Union) —  call  it  Nullification  or  call  it  what  you  will  ?  .  .  . 
It  is  preposterous  to  tell  us  that  parties  are  divided  only  as  to  the 
remedy.  An  agreement  in  principle,  and  a  difference  as  to  meas- 
ures, is  always  a  friendly  difference  of  opinion  .  .  .  but  is  there  no 
reason  in  this  case  to  fear,  that  many  of  those  who  profess  to  wage 
war  only  against  what  they  call  our  'extreme  remedies'  are  in  fact 
tariff  men  at  heart  ?  "  When  Hayne  left  this  branch  of  the  argu- 
ment and  attempted  to  make  out  his  case  on  the  Constitution,  he 
was  weak ;  for  one  has  only  to  read  the  act  by  which  South  Carolina 
commissioned  her  deputies  to  attend  the  Constitutional  Convention 
to  realize  that  Hayne's  assertion,  that,  "This  Constitution  was 
formed  by  the  several  States,  each  acting  for  itself  and  in  its  sov- 
ereign capacity,"  was  incorrect;  nor  is  his  speech  immune  to  the 
u 


r 

290  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

criticism  of  William  Gilmore  Simms,  "Mangled  quotations,  lugged 
in  by  the  head  and  shoulders,  whenever  there  is  an  inconvenient 
dearth  of  original  expression."  Meanwhile  the  Unionists  were 
breathing  forth  their  sentiments  in  twenty-four  regular  and 
one  hundred  and  twenty-three  volunteer  toasts.  That  some  of 
these  were  rather  truculent,  is  scarcely  astonishing  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. The  fifth  toast  was  aimed  at  Calhoun,  "The  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States:  His  political  intimates  have 
declared  their  sentiments  of  nullification  —  will  he  shrink  from  an 
open  exposition  of  his  own?"  *  This  taunt  was  followed  by  a 
veiled  threat  in  the  eighth,  "The  people  of  South  Carolina:  They 
will  preserve  the  Union  —  peaceably  if  they  can."  But  Cal- 
houn was  not  the  only  prominent  man  they  struck  at,  for  in 
/the  eleventh  they  gave,  "The  American  system:  The  offspring 
of  a  wily  ambition,  which  would  corrupt  the  people  at  their  own 
expense."  With  "State  sovereignty"  they  had  little  patience, 
declaring,  "If  one  State  has  a  right  to  change  the  government,  the 
others  have  a  right  to  prevent  it."  William  Lowndes  was  remem- 
bered and  eulogized,  and  Petigru  also  called  to  remembrance 
Judge  Nott.  The  toast  of  young  C.  G.  Memminger  was  one  well 
worthy  to  be  pondered,  "The  Virginia  Resolutions  of  1798: 
The  true  exposition  of  the  doctrine  of  State  Rights;  they  have 
once  prevailed  over  the  advocates  of  implied  powers  —  they  reject 
the  proffered  alliance  of  nullification."  But  no  toast  was  as  epi- 
grammatic as  that  of  another  young  attorney,  George  S.  Bryan, 
who  suggested,  "Nullification:  Anarchy  reduced  to  system." 
In  all  this  flash  of  wit,  perhaps  the  wisest  toast  was  that  offered 
by  the  Surveyor  of  the  Port,  who  seems  to  have  stood  somewhat 
alone  in  advocating,  "Charity  to  those  who  differ  from  us." 
Up  to  this  time,  Calhoun  had  refrained  from  committing  himself, 

1  Union  and  State  Rights  Celebration,  So.  Ca.  Historical  Pamphlets,  So.  Ca. 
Hist.  Society. 


THE  BREACH  BETWEEN  CALHOUN  AND  JACKSON  291 

although  he  had  expressed  to  Hammond  his  belief  that  the  general 
government  would  never  relax  its  hold  unless  compelled;  that 
such  compulsion  could  only  be  brought  about  by  united  pressure 
from  the  South  or  nullification  by  some  one  State,  and  as  there  was 
no  hope  of  united  effort  on  the  part  of  the  South  during 
Jackson's  term,  South  Carolina,  as  the  only  one  that  could  possibly 
put  herself  on  her  sovereignty,  was  the  only  one  to  be  looked  to.1 
As  late  as  June  16, 183 1,  writing  to  Samuel  D.  Ingham  of  McDufhe's 
imprudent  speech,  he  says:  "My  friends  must  judge  whether  the 
position  I  may  take  will  be  such  as  that  they  can  prudently  main- 
tain. If  so,  I  will,  of  course,  expect  their  support;  but  if  not,  I  will 
not  complain."  2  It  would  almost  seem  as  if  the  taunt  of  the 
Unionists  had  finally  decided  him;  for  under  date  of  August  5, 
he  writes  to  Van  Deventer,  "There  has  been  so  much  solicitude 
to  know  my  sentiments  on  the  great  question  of  the  relation  which 
the  State  and  General  Government  bear  to  each  other,  that  I  have 
laid  them  before  the  public  as  an  act  due  to  them,  as  well  as  to 
myself."  The  letter,  containing  his  views,  appeared  in  the  Pen- 
dleton Messenger,  as  written  July  26,  1831,  from  Fort  Hill,  so 
that  allowing  the  time  necessary  for  the  report  of  the  Unionist 
taunt  and  the  preparation  of  his  dignified  and  powerful  reply, 
it  would  seem  to  have  brought  it  forth. 

This  letter  was  the  strongest  presentation  ever  made  of  the  doc- 
trine of  nullification,  and  that  it  had  a  powerful  effect  is  not  to  be 
doubted.  Three  thousand  copies  of  it  and  1000  copies  of  Hayne's 
4th  of  July  speech  were  printed  and  circulated  as  campaign 
documents.  It  is  a  great  paper  and  one  worthy  of  study,  temperate 
throughout  and  appealing  to  nothing  but  the  reasoning  faculty. 
In  a  logical  method,  premises  are  laid  down  and  from  them  con- 
clusions are  drawn  with  great  skill.  The  writer  finds  it  necessary 
to  upset  some  of  his  own  friend's  arguments,  and  the  discourse 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  281.  *  Ibid,  p.  294. 


292  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

seems  to  prove  that  Benton  is  mistaken  in  his  belief,  as  well 
as  the  historian  Rhodes  in  his,  that  Calhoun  prompted  Hayne 
in  the  course  of  the  latter's  argument  with  Webster;  for 
strange  as  it  appears,  he  combats  one  of  Hayne' s  arguments, 
declaring  that  if  it  cannot  be  overthrown,  the  argument  for 
nullification  is  lost.  But  probably  the  most  interesting  part  of 
Calhoun's  letter  is  that  in  which  he  bases  his  belief  in  his  remedy, 
upon  his  unwillingness  to  admit  that  there  is  none  to  be  found. 
So  imperceptibly  do  the  premises  move  from  solid  to  unsubstantial 
ground,  that  it  is  difficult  to  detect  the  change ;  but  once  noticed, 
it  is  seen  that  the  base  of  this  elaborate  and  imposing  structure 
is  faulty.  The  premises  are  as  follows:  "The  General  Govern- 
ment emanated  from  the  people  of  the  several  States  forming 
distinct  political  communities ;  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  is  in  fact  a  compact,  to  which  each  State  is  a  party  in  the 
character  already  described,  and  that  the  several  States  or  parties 
have  a  right  to  judge  of  its  infraction  and  in  case  of  a  deliberate, 
palpable  and  dangerous  exercise  of  a  power,  not  delegated,  they 
have  the  right  in  the  last  resort,  to  use  the  language  of  the  Virginia 
resolutions,  to  interpose  for  arresting  the  progress  of  the  evil  and  for 
maintaining  within  their  respective  limits  the  authorities,  rights 
and  liberties  appertaining  to  them.  This  right  of  interposition 
...  be  it  called  what  it  may,  State  Rights,  veto,  nullification, 
or  by  any  other  name,  I  conceive  to  be  the  fundamental  principle 
of  our  system,  resting  on  facts  historically  as  certain  as  our  Revolu- 
tion itself,  and  deductions  as  simple  and  demonstrative  as  that  of 
any  political  or  moral  truth  whatever."  1  On  these  premises  the 
whole  argument  hangs  and  to  them  again  and  again  he  refers. 
In  his  second  speech  in  the  great  debate  with  Webster,  Hayne  had 
said:  "A  State  is  brought  into  collision  with  the  United  States, 
in  relation  to  the  exercise  of  unconstitutional  powers:   who  is  to 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Aug.  12,  1831. 


THE   BREACH   BETWEEN   CALHOUN   AND    JACKSON     293 

decide  between  them  ?  Sir,  it  is  the  common  case  of  difference  of 
opinion  between  sovereigns  as  to  the  true  construction  of  a  com- 
pact." He  had  argued  that  "the  party  proposing  to  use  the  dis- 
puted power"  should  appeal  to  the  power  by  which  the  Constitu- 
tion could  be  altered  for  express  authority  and  until  conferred, 
the  power  must  be  suspended.  Calhoun  now  found  it  necessary 
to  combat  this,  and  depending  on  the  supposed  strength  and  un- 
assailable nature  of  his  premises,  brushed  aside  an  argument  which, 
whatever  its  merit  or  lack  of  merit,  rested  on  a  premise  more  se- 
cure than  the  one  with  which  he  replaced  it.  "It  is  objected," 
he  said,  "that  if  one  party  has  the  right  to  judge  of  the  infraction 
of  the  Constitution,  so  has  the  other,  and  consequently  in  cases  of 
contested  powers  between  a  State  and  the  General  Government 
each  would  have  a  right  to  maintain  its  opinion  as  is  the  case  when 
sovereign  powers  differ  on  the  construction  of  treaties  or  compacts, 
and  that  it  would  come  to  a  mere  question  of  force.  The  error 
is  in  the  assumption  that  the  General  Government  is  a  party  to 
the  Constitutional  Compact.  The  States,  as  has  been  shown, 
formed  the  Compact,  acting  as  sovereigns  and  independent  com- 
munities. The  General  Government  is  but  the  creature,  and 
though  in  reality  a  government  with  all  the  rights  and  authority 
which  belong  to  any  other  government,  within  the  orb  of  its  power, 
it  is  nevertheless  a  government  emanating  from  a  compact  between 
sovereigns  and  partaking  in  its  nature  and  object  of  the  character 
of  a  joint  commission,  appointed  to  superintend  and  administer 
the  interests  in  which  all  are  jointly  concerned,  but  having  beyond 
its  proper  sphere  no  more  power  than  if  it  did  not  exist." 

The  only  word  which  properly  describes  this  argument  is  that  it 
is  extremely  subtle  and  gently  insinuating,  and  that  is  what  con- 
stitutes its  greatest  power.  For  instance,  if  the  two  first  premises 
are  considered,  in  the  light  of  the  act  by  which  South  Carolina 
deputized  her  commissioners    to    the  Constitutional  Convention 


294  ROBERT  Y.    HAYNE 

in  1787,1  we  must  note  that,  while  the  general  government  did 
emanate  from  the  people  of  the  several  States,  forming  distinct 
political  communities,  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
is  in  fact  a  compact,  to  which  each  State  is  a  party,  the  assertion 
that  they  were  such  "in  the  character  already  described"  is  erro- 
neous. That  is  where  Calhoun's  argument  fails;  for  the  State  of 
South  Carolina  was  not  a  party  to  the  Constitutional  Compact 
in  the  character  in  which  she  was  when  "the  General  Government 
emanated  from  the  people  of  the  several  States."  She  was  in  the 
second  instance  a  party  to  a  confederation  and  perpetual  Union, 
which  she  sought  to  make  more  perfect  by  joint  action  with  other 
States,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  general  government,  then 
existing,  and  her  own  subsequent  ratification.  This  seems  to  bear 
out  the  idea  of  the  constitutional  compact  which  both  Webster 
and  Calhoun  thought  erroneous,  when  advanced  by  Hayne ;  namely 
that  the  general  government  was  a  party  to  the  compact.  That 
Calhoun  himself  was  entirely  satisfied  with  the  conception  he  ad- 
vanced herein,  is  very  questionable,  in  the  light  of  another  expres- 
sion, in  the  same  great  discussion:  "As  the  disease  will  not  heal 
itself,  we  are  brought  to  the  question,  can  a  remedy  be  applied  ? 
To  answer  in  the  negative  would  be  to  assert  that  our  Union  has 
utterly  failed.  I  am  not  prepared  to  admit  a  conclusion  which 
would  cast  so  deep  a  shadow  on  the  future,  etc."  To  save  the 
Union  then,  to  avoid  secession  and  to  remedy  the  injustice  which 
the  tariff  was  occasioning,  by  the  exploitation  of  one  section  for 
the  benefit  of  another,  he  brought  himself  to  believe,  that  by  the 
Constitution  a  government  had  been  formed,  which  certainly  was 
not  such  as  Charles  Pinckney  had  conceived  it  to  be,  when  he, 
the  chief  architect  in  its  construction,  presented  it  to  the  con- 
vention of  South  Carolina  for  ratification;  nor  such  as  they  who 
framed  the  act  (by  which  he  and  Charles  Cotesworth  Pinckney 

1  Statutes  of  So.  Ca.,  Vol.  5,  p.  4. 


THE   BREACH   BETWEEN   CALHOUN  AND   JACKSON     295 

and  the  other  deputies  of  the  State  had  been  empowered  to  assist 
in  its  preparation)  had  legislated  for ;  nor  such  as  Judge  Nott  had 
argued  from  the  bench  of  South  Carolina,  in  1818,  it  must  of  neces- 
sity be ;  but  such  as  Quincy  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  had  argued,  that  it  was  in  181 1,  when  Poindexter 
of  Mississippi  had  called  him  to  order  and  on  appeal  from  the 
Speaker's  ruling,  the  House  by  solemn  vote  had  set  its  seal  of  ap- 
proval upon,  by  overruling  the  Speaker  in  his  sustenance  of  Poin- 
dexter's  point  of  order. 

Calhoun,  therefore,  had  originated  nothing ;  he  had  simply  given 
new  life  and  vitality  to  the  principle  enunciated  in  the  Faneuil 
Hall  resolutions  of  181 1,  which,  with  greater  ability  and  temper- 
ance, he  put  forward  in  a  cause,  to  say  the  least,  as  just.  And 
if  the  weakness  of  his  argument  may  have  been  apparent  to  some 
of  his  fellow-citizens,  the  justice  of  the  cause  in  which  it  was  so 
temperately  urged  was  recognized  by  all  but  a  very  small  propor- 
tion; those  whose  course  Hayne  had  predicted,  with  rare  political 
sagacity,  now  established  by  one  of  the  very  leaders,  he  had  fore- 
seen, would  be  embarrassed  by  it.1 

Writing  to  his  friend  Elliott  on  August  25,  1831,  J.  L.  Petigru 
observes:  "The  Union  party,  after  going  on  with  marvellous 
discretion,  have  just  come  to  something  like  a  stump.  They 
thought  to  send  tracts  into  the  country.  B.  F.  H.  had  the  lead  and 
undertook  to  superintend  it.  He  wrote  the  prospectus  devilish 
well,  too,  but  unluckily  he  slips  over  the  line  and,  as  our  orthodox 
say,  defends  the  tariff."  2 

The  turn  of  the  tide  is  evinced  by  Pinckney's  wresting  the  Inten- 
dancy  from  Pringle  in  Charleston;  yet  so  evenly  divided  still  are 
the  parties  that  the  State  Rights  party  fill  a  vacancy  in  the  Legis- 
lature by  a  majority  of  only  8  votes  over  the  1346  cast  for  the 

1  Hayne's  Letter  of  September  12,  1830;  Speech  of  July  4,  1831,  p.  20. 

2  Unpublished  letters  of  J.  L.  Petigru  in  possession  of  J.  P.  Carson,  Esq. 


296  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

Unionist  candidate.  Then  comes  an  appeal  far  more  impressive 
than  any  utterance  which  could  possibly  fall  from  the  lips  or  pro- 
ceed from  the  pen  of  Hayne,  Calhoun  or  any  other  Carolinian,  the 
venerable  Sumter,  the  hero  of  that  continual  warfare  against  the 
British  in  South  Carolina  which  the  historian  McCrady  declares 
was  in  the  main  responsible  for  the  surrender  at  Yorktown,  the  con- 
sistent Republican,  now  in  his  ninety-fifth  year,  marks  the  coming 
year  of  his  own  long-deferred  departure  from  this  earthly  life,  with  this 
solemn  call:  "The  year  1832:  The  period  when  the  character  of 
the  State  of  South  Carolina  and  of  her  inhabitants  shall  be  fixed 
forever.  When  no  middle  course  shall  be  open  to  them,  and  when 
every  individual  will  either  rank  among  the  enemies  of  the  liberties 
of  his  country,  or  else  among  those  who  have  honored  it."  1 

It  was  with  appeals  such  as  these  moving  him  that  Hayne  pro- 
ceeded to  the  last  session  of  Congress,  in  which  he  took  a  part. 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Nov.  16,  1831. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    CONTROL    OF    SOUTH    CAROLINA.      THE    LAST 
APPEAL    TO    REASON    AT    WASHINGTON 

In  the  close  of  the  year  183 1,  the  Unionists,  realizing  that  the 
tide  of  opinion  in  the  State  was  setting  in  against  them  and  that, 
in  all  probability,  they  would  be  weaker  in  the  Legislature  to  be 
chosen  in  the  following  year  than  in  the  one  the  term  of  which  was 
drawing  to  an  end,  attempted  the  execution  of  a  flank  movement 
of  some  skill,  which  they  almost  succeeded  in  effecting.  On  the 
introduction  of  a  resolution  favoring  the  renomination  of  Jackson, 
by  a  very  full  vote,  the  body  put  itself  on  record  as  not  committed, 
65  for,  90  against.1  Following  up  this  demonstration  of  Jackson's 
strength,  they  published  an  address  to  the  people  of  the  State, 
which  was  a  strong  document  and  signed  by  some  men  of  more  than 
local  influence,  —  ex-Senator  William  Smith,  Judge  D.  E.  Huger, 
ex-Governor  R.  I.  Manning,  ex-Congressmen  Joel  R.  Poinsett 
and  John  Gist,  Judge  J.  P.  Richardson  and  J.  L.  Petigru,  Esq. 
"We  deny,"  the  address  declares,  "that  any  State,  by  the  Consti- 
tution, has  the  right  to  declare  an  act  of  Congress,  passed  within 
the  letter  of  the  Constitution  (such  as  the  tariff),  and  in  which  all 
of  the  States  are  equally  interested,  unconstitutional,  and  to  arrest 
its  operations  within  its  limits."  Then  inquiring,  "  Can  the  Legis- 
lature pass  a  law  laying  imposts?"  the  answer  is,  "No;  because 
the  State  parted  with  that  right."  The  address  admits,  "It  is 
true  that  ours  is  a  government  of  checks  and  balances,"  but  claims 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  3,  183 1. 

297 


298  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

that  "all  which  exist  are  to  be  found  within  the  Constitution,"  and 
aiming  evidently  at  Calhoun's  publication  of  the  previous  year, 
declares  that  "any  other  is  the  product  of  a  great  mind  grappling 
with  a  wrong  cause,  until  error  has  gained  the  ascendency."  While 
this  address  fails  to  suffer  even  by  contrast  with  the  elaborate  argu- 
ment of  Calhoun,  which  it  thus  singles  out  to  assail,  it  is  because, 
avoiding  the  manner  adopted  by  him,  it  aims  to  bring  the  matter 
before  the  mind  of  the  reader  in  its  practical  operation.  "We 
nullify  the  tariff  law.  Congress  passes,  by  a  constitutional  vote, 
an  act  to  call  a  convention,  and  Rhode  Island  nullifies  it.  What  is 
to  be  done?  Must  there  be  another  act  to  call  a  convention,  to 
nullify  Rhode  Island's  nullification?  It  seems  to  be  unquestion- 
able that  there  must."  1  Certainly  the  Unionists  of  South  Caro- 
lina were  contesting  every  foot  of  ground;  nor  was  there  any 
opponent  so  great  and  powerful  as  to  find  shelter  from  their  fire, 
Sumter,  alone,  excepted;  and  how  could  they  attack  him?  Was 
not  the  very  existence  of  the  State  and  the  independence  achieved 
in  a  great  measure  due  to  him  ?  had  he  not  exhausted  every  effort 
to  prevent  the  ratification  of  the  Constitution  under  which  this 
exploitation  of  the  State  was  being  conducted?  With  Sumter,  it 
was  no  fine  discrimination  as  to  powers,  granted  or  withheld,  ex- 
press or  implied,  but  the  Revolutionary  right  of  resistance  to  op- 
pression for  which,  more  than  half  a  century  before,  he  had  freely 
poured  out  his  blood;  and  his  call  the  State  thoroughly  understood, 
and  was  preparing  to  respond  to.  In  his  "  History  of  the  United 
States,"  Mr.  Elson  says :  "  Notwithstanding  the  ominous  warnings, 
the  South  Carolinians  rushed  on  where  angels  might  have  feared 
to  tread.  Their  State  was  in  great  turmoil ;  but  it  was  in  Washing- 
ton that  the  seeds  of  disunion  were  nourished  into  growth  under 
the  leadership  of  Hayne."  The  ominous  warnings  to  which  this 
historian  refers,  he  sets  out  as  conveyed  in  a  toast  given  by  Presi- 

1  City  Gazette,  Jan.  6,  1832. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  CONTROL  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA    299 

dent  Jackson  at  a  banquet,  held  in  Washington  on  April  13,  1830, 
where,  after  many  such,  "  bearing  on  State  Rights,  and  savoring  of 
nullification,"  he  announced  as  his  subject,  "The  Federal  Union: 
It  must  and  shall  be  preserved."  Continuing,  the  historian  de- 
clares :  "  He  denounced  as  treason  all  movements  toward  nullifica- 
tion and  disunion.  His  speech  fell  like  a  bomb  in  the  ranks  of 
the  South  Carolinians ;  they  saw  that  they  could  get  no  sympathy 
from  Jackson,  that  he  was  for  the  Union  at  all  hazards.  This 
occurred  two  and  a  half  months  after  the  great  debate  between 
Webster  and  Hayne,  and  a  month  before  the  final  break  between 
Jackson  and  Calhoun."  The  only  authority  for  this,  given  by 
Mr.  Elson,  is  Benton ;  but  Benton  does  not  altogether  sustain  it. 
Writing  from  his  recollection  many  years  after,  Benton  yet  remem- 
bers the  toast  as  originally  reported,  "Our  Federal  Union,  it 
must  be  preserved."  In  addition  to  offering  this  toast,  Jackson 
may  have  spoken;  but  Benton  does  not  so  state.  What  he  does 
say  is:  "This  brief  and  simple  sentiment,  receiving  emphasis 
from  all  the  attendant  circumstances  and  from  the  feeling  which 
had  been  spreading  since  the  time  of  Mr.  Webster's  speech  was 
received  by  the  public  as  a  proclamation  from  the  President,  to 
announce  a  plot  against  the  Union  and  to  summon  the  people  to 
its  defence."  *  T^he_words  "and  shall"  were_w^ds^ajm£d_-by— - 
the  Philadelphia  Sentinel  t^have_taej^sej^^ 
which  arose^jisjo  Jackson's  meaning,  and  it  was  after  Jackson's 
toastjiotbefore.  that  Calhoun  offered  his.  "TheUmon:  Next  to  ^ 
our  TihertyjJTe  mpst  dear;  may  we  all  remember  that  it  can  only 
be  preserved  by  respecting  the  rights  of  the  States  and  distributing 
equally  the  benefits  and  burden  of  the  Union."  While  the  third 
toast  in  order  almost  knits  the  two  together.  This  was  offered 
by  Van  Buren,  Jackson's  Secretary  of  State  and  political  legatee: 
"Mutual  forbearance  and  reciprocal  concessions.     Through  their 

1  Benton,  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  Vol.  1,  p.  148. 


300  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

agency  the  Union  was  established.  The  patriotic  spirit  from 
which  they  emanated  will  ever  sustain  it."  *  Four  months  later, 
Jackson  did  express  disapproval  of  "this  nulifying  doctrine,"  and 
also  declared  that  he  "was  aware  of  the  hostility  of  the  influential 
personage"  with  which  William  B.  Lewis  was  seeking  to  acquaint 
him;  but  he  seems  even  then  to  be  depending  more  upon  the  South 
Carolinians  putting  it  down  themselves  than  preparing  himself  for 
any  such  effort,  and  it  was  not  until  after  his  breach  with  Calhoun 
at  the  end  of  the  year  1830,  or  possibly  until  Van  Buren  was  re- 
placed by  the  abler  Edward  Livingston,  that  Jackson  was  made  to 
understand  what  nullification  meant.  Prior  to  that  time,  he  had 
practically  approved  it;  and  when  he  finally  issued  his  proclama- 
tion against  the  doctrine,  while  the  hand  was  the  hand  of  Jackson, 
the  voice  was  the  voice  of  Livingston. 

To  describe  Hayne  as  during  this  time  occupying  himself  in 
nourishing  the  seeds  of  disunion  at  Washington,  is  not  warranted  by 
the  facts  of  the  case ;  rather  he  was  exerting  himself  to  the  utmost 
to  remove  the  cause  of  discontent,  the  exactions  of  that  which  his 
great  antagonist  had  flippantly  denominated  "the  accursed  tar- 
iff." But  into  the  Senate  Chamber  of  the  United  States  there  now 
stalked  the  most  remarkable  figure  of  that  time.  Distinctly  in- 
ferior to  both  Calhoun  and  Webster,  in  point  of  intellect,  led  into 
disaster  after  disaster  by  an  erring  judgment,  the  very  prince  of 
demagogues,  Clay  must  have  been  nevertheless  one  of  the  most 
magnetic  of  men  and,  despite  his  bursts  of  arrogance,  capable  of 
inspiring  a  devotion  never  lavished  upon  his  two  great  rivals. 
A  part  of  the  secret  of  his  extraordinary  hold  upon  his  followers  is 
accounted  for  in  the  admission  of  an  active  opponent,  "Henry 
Clay  never  deserted  a  friend."  2  But  this  was  not  from  policy, 
it  was  because  his  affections,  once  engaged,  he  was  constant,  and 
death  itself  could  not  tear  from  his  heart  the  memory  of  a  friend. 

1  Courier,  April  24,  1830.  a  Francis  P.  Blair. 


STRUGGLE    FOR   CONTROL   OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA     301 

His  popularity  was  certainly  not  due  to  his  successes ;  for  few  men 
of  prominence  in  our  national  history  have  provoked  and  been 
worsted  in  so  many  encounters  as  the  story  of  his  life  teems  with. 
Failing  to  secure  the  Presidency,  he  had  become  Adams's  Secretary 
of  State,  somewhat  to  the  injury  of  the  New  England  statesman, 
who,  as  the  chief  executive  of  the  country,  had  been  made  to  bear 
the  odium  of  Clay's  ill-digested  projects  for  his  own  aggrandize- 
ment. Yet,  in  unintentionally  crippling  Adams,  he  had  accom- 
plished but  little  for  himself.  Still,  he  was  a  great  presence  and 
must  live  in  history  as  the  father  of  the  American  System,  which, 
whether  for  good  or  ill,  he  was  mainly  responsible  for.  From 
the  time  of  his  debate  with  Hayne,  Webster  had  almost  replaced 
Dickerson  as  the  leader  of  the  protectionists;  while  Hayne  still 
remained  at  the  head  of  the  free  trade  faction;  but  the  division 
was  not  so  sharp  as  to  prevent  them  from  not  infrequently  voting 
upon  the  same  side,  in  the  many  questions  coming  before  the  Senate. 
Between  the  two  no  further  clash  had  occurred ;  but  this  could  not 
be  credited  to  undue  caution  upon  the  part  of  Hayne,  whose  slash- 
ing assault  upon  the  pension  system  seemed  to  call  out  for  a  de- 
fender ;  rather  it  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  former  aggressor  felt 
that  he  had  nothing  to  gain  by  any  further  controversy,  and  that  it 
was  incumbent  upon  him  not  again  to  be  found  in  that  attitude 
without  a  most  compelling  reason.  Hayne  had,  however,  undoubt- 
edly sacrificed  some  of  his  strength  and  influence  in  the  State  and 
nation  to  his  absolute  loyalty  to  Calhoun.  Doubtless  he  realized 
that  without  Calhoun's  assistance  he  might  have  failed  to  reach  the 
high  station  he  held,  and  for  his  chief's  ambition,  he  entertained 
the  warmest  sympathy,  believing  him  to  be  most  eminently  fitted 
for  the  Presidency;  but  this  sympathy  certainly  led  the  younger 
man  to  assume  at  least  one  utterly  indefensible  position,  which  his 
own  truer  judgment  had  led  him  to  advise  strongly  against.  Had 
Hayne  possessed  that  ability  to  steel  himself  against  the  demands 


302  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

of  friendship  and  gratitude  for  past  favors,  which  Calhoun  cer- 
tainly was  capable  of,  he  would  remain  a  less  beautiful  character; 
but  he  would  be  far  better  known  and  much  more  prominent. 
Benton  describes  him,  in  the  great  debate  with  Webster,  as  "the 
sword  and  shield"  of  Calhoun,  and  Benton  certainly  had  some 
excuse  for  this  description  in  connection  with  an  instance  in  which 
he  and  Calhoun  had  been  at  issue,  in  which  Hayne's  sound  judg- 
ment, keen  perception  and  prompt  action  had  saved  Calhoun  from 
a  situation  calculated  to  injure  him,  even  if  but  slightly,  in  the  esti- 
mation of  the  public.  Calhoun  had  ruled  Benton  out  of  order, 
on  some  point  raised,  and  Benton,  very  courteously  but  firmly, 
had  informed  the  presiding  officer  of  the  Senate  that  he  was  so 
confident  he  was  right  that  he  felt  compelled  to  appeal  from 
the  decision  of  the  chair.  But  before  the  appeal  could  be  put, 
Hayne,  for  whom  Benton  entertained  a  very  great  affection  and 
warm  regard,  interposed  and  obtained  a  postponement  to  allow 
senators  to  look  into  the  point.  At  the  opening  of  the  following 
day,  Calhoun  admitted  his  error  and  corrected  it,  without  an  appeal. 
If  therefore  Calhoun  helped  to  advance  Hayne  to  high  station, 
Hayne  most  intelligently  and  loyally  assisted  Calhoun  in  maintain- 
ing his  own. 

With  Clay's  entrance  to  the  Senate,  Webster's  hard-won  leader- 
ship vanished;  for  the  father  of  the  American  System  promptly 
installed  himself  as  leader  of  the  protectionists,  as  well  as  of  the 
opposition,  thereby  driving  the  hot-tempered  Jackson  towards 
free  trade.  The  ability  of  the  Southern  men  to  utilize  this, 
however,  was  profoundly  affected  by  the  personal  difference  which 
had  arisen  between  Jackson  and  Calhoun. 

On  the  ioth  of  January,  1832,  Clay  submitted  his  tariff  resolu- 
tion. The  debt  was  about  to  be  paid,  and  the  duties  must  be  re- 
duced, the  question  was  how  they  should  be?  He  suggested, 
"That  the  existing  duties  upon  articles  imported  from  foreign 


STRUGGLE   FOR   CONTROL   OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA     303 

countries,  and  not  coming  into  competition  with  similar  articles, 
made  or  produced  within  the  United  States,  ought  to  be  forthwith 
abolished,  except  the  duties  on  wines  and  silks,  and  that  they 
ought  to  be  reduced."  At  the  very  opening  of  his  speech  in  favor 
of  this  course,  Clay,  addressing  the  Vice-President,  made  an  al- 
lusion to  their  dead  friend,  William  Lowndes,  "  a  friend  of  yours 
and  mine,  whose  premature  death  was  not  a  loss  merely  to  his 
native  State,  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  brightest  ornaments ;  but 
to  the  whole  Nation.  No  man  with  whom  we  had  the  honor  to 
be  associated  in  the  legislative  councils  combined  more  extensive 
and  useful  knowledge,  with  more  firmness  of  judgment  and  bland- 
ness  of  manner  than  the  lamented  Lowndes."  *  Then  passing  to  a 
consideration  of  the  three  modes  by  which  the  tariff  might  be 
reduced,  he  characterized  the  first  and  second,  the  contention  of  the 
South  and  his  own  original  proposition,  as  both  equally  objection- 
able ;  but  the  third,  the  suggestion  which  he  was  now  advocating, 
he  maintained  was  the  ideal  solution.  The  spirit  of  the  man,  his 
methods  and  his  policies,  were  unconsciously  summed  up  in  the 
sincere  inquiry,  "Why  should  those  who  opposed  the  American 
System  demand  of  its  friends  an  unconditional  surrender  ?  "  That 
was  Clay.  Not  what  was  best  for  the  country,  not  what  was  wis- 
est; but  terms.  Then  failing  to  realize  that  in  Adams  and  his 
diary  there  would  arise  the  pruner  of  his  periods,  he  launched  his 
peroration:  "Yes,  Sir,  I  came  here  in  a  spirit  of  warm  attachment 
to  all  parts  of  our  beloved  country ;  with  a  lively  solicitude  to  restore 
and  preserve  its  harmony  and  with  a  firm  determination  to  pour  oil 
and  balm  into  existing  wounds  rather  than  to  further  lacerate  them. 
For  the  truth  and  sincerity  of  these  declarations  I  appeal  to  Him 
whom  none  can  deceive.  I  expected  to  be  met  by  a  corresponding 
disposition  and  hoped  that  our  deliberations,  guided  by  fraternal 
sentiment  and  feelings,  would  terminate  in  diffusing  contentment 

1  City  Gazette,  Jan.  20,  1832. 


304  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

and  satisfaction  throughout  the  land.  And  that  such  may  be  the 
spirit  presiding  over  them,  and  such  their  issue,  I  yet  most  fervently 
hope." 

The  warmth  of  his  "  attachment  to  all  parts  of  our  beloved  coun- 
try" is  dryly  set  out  by  that  cold-blooded  individual,  John  Quincy 
Adams,  who  relates  that  on  December  the  28th  he  had  attended  a 
conference  at  which  Clay  had  laid  down  as  the  principle  of  the 
party  "to  abolish  and  reduce  the  duties  on  unprotected  articles, 
and  to  increase  the  duties  on  protected  articles."  Adams  states 
that  he  "observed  that  an  immediate  remission  of  duties,  with  a 
declared  disposition  to  increase  the  duties  upon  protected  articles, 
would  be  a  defiance  not  only  of  the  South,  as  had  been  observed  by 
Mr.  Everett,  but  defiance  also  of  the  President  and  the  whole  ad- 
ministration party.  Mr.  Clay  said  he  did  not  care  who  it  defied. 
To  preserve,  maintain  and  strengthen  the  American  system,  he 
would  defy  the  South,  the  President  and  the  devil."  l  From  this 
extreme  position  he  had  receded,  under  pressure  from  his  own  side ; 
but  to  Webster,  who  was  present  at  this  conference,  the  speaker's 
allusions  to  the  oil  and  balm  he  wished  to  pour  into  existing  wounds 
must  have  been  most  impressive.  Immediately  upon  the  conclu- 
sion of  Clay's  speech,  Hayne,  as  leader  of  the  opposing  faction, 
arose  to  move  a  postponement  of  any  further  consideration  of  the 
resolution  and  the  making  it  the  order  of  the  day  for  the  following 
Monday.  In  support  of  his  motion,  he  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  resolution  contemplated  an  adjustment  of  the  tariff,  under 
which  "  articles  of  universal  consumption  and  in  relation  to  which 
every  class  of  the  public  and  every  portion  of  the  country  contribute 
equally  should  be  relieved  entirely  from  all  taxation;  while  the 
high  duties  on  the  protected  articles  should  remain  untouched." 
He  alluded  to  the  expressed  hope  of  "  common  ground  " ;  but  asked 
how  that  was  possible,  with  "no  concessions  whatever  to  our  views, 

1  "Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,"  Vol.  8,  p.  446. 


STRUGGLE   FOR   CONTROL   OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA     305 

but  with  the  purpose  to  maintain  the  protective  system  in  all  its 
unmitigated  rigor?"  The  situation  seemed  so  threatening  that 
Judge  Baldwin  of  Pennsylvania  proposed  a  plan  of  adjustment 
to  Hayne  and  McDuffie,  after  consultation  with  ex-President 
Adams,  which  they  could  not  tell  him  would  be  satisfactory  to 
them  or  the  South,  but  which  Hayne  did  tell  him  he  would  be 
glad  to  see  introduced  by  a  Pennsylvanian  senator. 

On  Monday,  Hayne  moved  to  amend  Clay's  resolution  by  strik- 
ing out  all  after  the  word  "countries"  in  the  second  line  and  insert- 
ing, "be  so  reduced,  that  the  amount  of  the  public  revenue  shall 
be  sufficient  to  defray  the  expenses  of  government,  according  to 
their  present  scale,  after  the  payment  of  the  public  debt ;  and  that 
allowing  a  reasonable  time  for  the  gradual  reduction  of  the  present 
high  duties  on  the  articles,  coming  into  competition  with  similar  arti- 
cles made  or  produced  in  the  United  States,  the  duties  be  ultimately 
equalized,  so  that  the  duties  on  no  article  shall,  as  compared  with 
the  value  of  that  article,  vary  materially  from  the  general  average." 
In  expressing  his  views,  Hayne  was  obliged  to  cover  ground  most 
comprehensively  surveyed  in  his  great  speech  against  the  tariff 
bill  of  1824,  in  an  effort  extremely  difficult  for  any  one  to  improve 
upon;  yet,  in  certain  respects,  the  speech  of  1832  is  a  more  finished 
product.  Before  him,  he  had  a  far  abler  adversary  than  Dicker- 
son;  indeed,  in  the  popular  estimate,  the  greatest  living  debater, 
although  it  is  doubtful  whether,  in  Hayne's  opinion,  he  was  such. 
It  is  interesting  to  notice  the  mode  in  which  Hayne  undertook  to 
contend  with  Clay.  There  is  an  absence  of  that  intense  excitement 
which  inspired  some  of  his  keenest  thrusts  and  animated  his  first 
reply  to  Webster  to  its  highest  pitch  of  eloquence.  He  has  himself 
as  well  in  hand  as  he  was  in  the  second  speech.  Nothing  in 
Hayne's  style  of  speaking  is  so  strikingly  original  as  his  ability 
to  utilize  eulogy  of  an  opponent  to  strengthen  his  own  cause.     If 

1  Ibid.,  Vol  8,  p.  482. 
x 


306  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

there  was  lacking  that  burning  eloquence  in  which  he  emblazoned 
on  high  the  fame  of  Webster  as  an  opponent  of  the  tariff,  as  the 
latter  declared,  only  that  his  fall  might  be  the  greater  when  he  no 
longer  opposed  it;  if  there  was  no  passage  quite  up  to  the  style  of 
that  supremely  pure  and  beautiful  picture  of  the  Republic,  which 
adorns  his  own  great  speech  of  1824,  yet  it  was  a  truly  great  speech, 
fully  worthy  of  the  grave  occasion  upon  which  it  was  delivered  and 
the  great  antagonist  who  could  find  in  it  no  weak  point  which 
he  could  successfully  assail.  If  Clay  remembered  the  "farthing 
candle,"  which  Hayne  had  pictured  him  in  1830,  holding  up  to 
Webster's  sun  in  1824,  he  was  not  the  man  to  bear  malice;  but  had 
he  been  more  of  the  nature  of  Calhoun  or  Webster,  Hayne's  opening 
might  have  partially  disarmed  him;  for  the  latter  said  of  him: 
"  The  Senator  from  Kentucky  (Mr.  Clay)  commenced  his  remarks 
a  few  days  ago  by  complaining  of  the  advances  of  age,  and  mourned 
the  decay  of  his  eloquence  so  eloquently  as  to  prove  that  it  was 
still  in  full  vigor.  He  then  went  on,  Sir,  to  make  a  most  able  and 
ingenious  argument,  amply  sustaining  his  high  reputation  as  an 
accomplished  orator."  But  Hayne  was  not  idly  complimenting 
Clay.  Even  in  this  he  was  attacking  his  speech  as  was  soon 
apparent,  and  as  difficult  as  this  style  of  warfare  was  to  meet. 
Continuing,  he  said:  "With  this  example  before  me,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, I  am  almost  deterred  from  offering  any  apology  for  the  very 
imperfect  manner  in  which  I  must,  of  necessity,  perform  the  task 
now  before  me,  lest  I  should  create  expectations  which  it  will  cer- 
tainly not  be  in  my  power  to  gratify.  And  yet,  perhaps,  it  may  be 
permitted  to  one  so  humble  as  myself  to  say,  that  it  belongs  not  to 
me  at  any  time,  or  under  any  circumstances,  and,  least  of  all,  at 
this  moment,  and  on  this  occasion,  to  satisfy  the  expectations  of 
those,  if  any  such  there  be,  who  may  have  come  here  to  witness  the 
graces  of  oratory,  or  to  be  delighted  with  the  charms  of  eloquence. 
I  would  not,  Sir,  on  this  occasion,  play  the  orator  if  I  could.  .  .  . 


STRUGGLE   FOR   CONTROL   OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA     307 

Confiding  in  the  indulgence  of  the  Senate,  and  deeply  sensible  of  my 
inability  to  do  justice  to  the  important  subject ...  I  shall  proceed  at 
once  in  the  plain,  unadorned  language  of  soberness  and  truth  to 
the  examination  of  the  questions  now  before  us.  The  gentleman 
from  Kentucky  set  out  with  the  declaration  that  he  did  not  deem 
it  necessary  to  offer  any  arguments  in  favor  of  the  American  System,  • 
'that  the  protecting  policy  stands  self-vindicated,  that  it  has  scat- 
tered its  rich  fruits  over  the  whole  land,  and  is  sustained  by  the 
experience  of  all-powerful  and  prosperous  nations.'  Sir,  we  meet 
these  positions  at  once  by  asserting,  on  our  part,  that  the  Protecting 
System  stands  self-condemned  —  condemned  in  our  own  country, 
by  the  desolation  which  has  followed  in  its  train,  and  the  discon- 
tents it  has  produced  —  condemned  by  the  experience  of  all  the 
world,  and  the  almost  unanimous  opinion  of  enlightened  men  in 
modern  times.  .  .  .  We  are  seeking  relief  from  an  abiding  evil. 
.  .  .  We  cannot  stand  where  we  are.  We  cannot,  like  the  gentle- 
man from  Kentucky,  rest  on  mere  unsupported  assertions."  * 
Then  taking  up  the  claim  that  "the  much-abused  policy  of  1824 
has  filled  our  coffers,  etc.,"  he  contends  that  "the  object  of  a  pro- 
tecting tariff  as  such  certainly  is  to  diminish  or  exclude  importa- 
tions and,  of  course,  to  lessen  the  amount  of  revenue  derived  from 
duties.  The  very  end  and  aim  of  such  a  system  is  to  substitute 
for  the  imported  taxed  article  the  untaxed  domestic  article,  to 
transmute  the  tax  into  a  bounty  to  the  manufacturers,  and  just  so 
far  as  this  end  is  attained,  that  is  to  say,  just  so  far  as  the  tariff 
is  protective  must  it  cut  off  the  public  revenue."  Concerning  the 
"rich  fruits"  which  the  protective  policy  had  "scattered  over  the 
country,"  Hayne  said  he  would  apply  a  test  "which  cannot  deceive 
us  with  regard  to  the  gentleman's  own  State.  When  the  policy 
of  1824  was  before  Congress,  the  Senator  from  Kentucky  stood 

1  Speech  of  R.  Y.  Hayne,  "Reduction  of  the  Tariff,  1832."     Printed  by  Jonathan 
Elliott,  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  Washington,  p.  3. 


308  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

forth  as  its  champion,  and  it  was  my  lot  to  attempt  to  answer  his 
arguments.  It  is  true,  Sir,  that  his  speech  was  made  in  the  other 
House  and  mine  on  this  floor,  but  his  argument  had  been  sent  forth 
as  the  manifesto  of  the  party;  it  was  printed  in  pamphlet  form 
and  laid  on  the  tables  of  the  senators.  ...  I  well  remember, 
therefore,  that  on  that  occasion  the  gentleman  argued  that  Kentucky 
was  to  participate  in  the  protecting  system,  by  raising  large  quan- 
tities of  hemp,  and  supplying  the  Southern  States  with  cotton  bag- 
ging; and  he  strongly  insisted  that  she  was  then  only  prevented 
from  so  doing  by  the  ruinous  competition  of  the  little  Scotch  towns 
of  Inverness  and  Dundee.  And  what  is  it,  Sir,  that  we  hear  now, 
after  the  lapse  of  eight  years  ?  The  old  story  repeated.  Kentucky 
still  deprived  of  the  benefits  of  the  protecting  system  by  those  for- 
midable rivals,  Inverness  and  Dundee.  They  still  constitute  'the 
lion  in  the  path,'  and  foreign  manufactures  ever  will  be  'the  lion 
in  the  path'  to  those  whose  prosperity  depends  on  the  protecting 
system."  Passing  from  the  West  to  the  South,  he  cites  Charleston 
as  evidence  of  "the  crumbling  memorial  of  our  wealth  and  happi- 
ness," declaring  that  it  was  within  his  own  experience  that  "a 
thriving  foreign  commerce  was  within  a  few  years  past  carried  on 
direct  to  Europe.  We  had  native  merchants,  with  large  capitals 
engaged  in  the  foreign  trade.  We  had  thirty  or  forty  ships,  many 
of  them  built  and  all  owned  in  Charleston,  giving  employment  to 
a  numerous  and  valuable  body  of  mechanics,  tradesmen  and  mari- 
ners. Look  at  the  state  of  things  now.  Our  merchants  bankrupt 
or  driven  away  —  their  capital  sunk  or  transferred  to  other  pur- 
suits —  our  shipyards  broken  up  —  our  ships  all  sold."  He  ad- 
mitted frankly  that  there  were  other  causes  which  had  contributed 
to  produce  the  evils  which  he  had  depicted,  that  trade  could  be 
carried  on  with  greater  facility  at  New  York  and  cotton  raised 
more  profitably  in  Alabama;  but  contended  that  " men  do  not  quit 
their  accustomed  employments  or  the  homes  of  their  fathers  for 


STRUGGLE   FOR   CONTROL   OF   SOUTH  CAROLINA      309 

any  small  addition  merely  to  their  profits."  He  took  occasion  to 
warn  the  representatives  of  the  new  States  that  they  could  not  long 
escape  the  common  fate;  they  would  only  be  the  last  victims  de- 
voured. He  declared  that  there  was  "no  escape  from  this  political 
Polyphemus,  unless  they  assume  the  fleece  —  become  manufac- 
turers and  take  the  bounty."  Even  at  the  North,  he  averred,  there 
were  "wise  and  experienced  and  patriotic  men  .  .  .  who  tell  us 
.  .  .  that  the  system  has  operated  in  building  up  a  favored  class, 
at  the  expense  of  the  rest  of  the  community.  That  it  has,  in  fact, 
'made  the  rich  richer  and  the  poor  poorer.'  .  .  .  But  there  are 
higher  and  more  sacred  principles  involved  in  this  question,  which 
cannot  be  safely  disregarded  —  considerations  of  justice  and  political 
equality  which  rise  far  above  all  calculations  of  mere  profit  and  loss. 
Sir,  what  will  it  profit  you  '  if  you  gain  the  whole  world '  and  lose 
the  hearts  of  your  people.  This  is  a  confederated  government, 
founded  on  a  spirit  of  mutual  conciliation,  concession  and  com- 
promise; and  it  is  neither  a  just,  prudent,  nor  rightful  exercise 
of  the  high  trust  with  which  you  are  invested  for  the  common  good, 
to  resort  to  a  system  of  legislation,  by  which  benefits  and  burdens 
are  unequally  distributed.  ...  A  large  portion  of  your  fellow- 
citizens,  believing  themselves  to  be  grievously  oppressed  by  this 
system,  are  clamoring  at  your  doors  for  justice,  while  another  por- 
tion, supposing  that  they  are  enjoying  rich  bounties  under  it,  are 
treating  their  complaints  with  scorn  and  contempt.  God  only 
knows  where  all  this  is  to  end.  But  it  'will  not  and  cannot  come 
to  good.'  We  at  the  South  still  call  you  our  brethren,  and  have 
ever  cherished  towards  you  the  strongest  feelings  of  affection; 
but  were  you  the  brothers  of  our  blood,  for  whom  we  would  coin 
our  hearts,  it  is  not  in  human  nature  that  we  should  continue  to 
retain  for  you  undiminished  affection,  after  all  hope  of  redress  shall 
have  passed  away  —  or  while  we  shall  continue  to  believe  that  you 
are  visiting  us  with  a  hard  and  cruel  oppression,  and  enforcing  a 


310  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

cold  and  heartless  policy."  In  contrast  to  the  true  but  gloomy 
picture  he  had  drawn,  the  speaker  next  most  felicitously  portrayed 
free  trade:  "It  looks  on  all  mankind  as  children  of  a  common 
parent  —  and  the  great  family  of  nations  as  linked  together  by 
mutual  interests.  Sir,  as  there  is  a  religion,  so  I  believe  there  is  a 
politics  of  nature.  Cast  your  eyes  over  this  various  earth  —  see 
its  surface  diversified  with  hills  and  valleys,  rocks  and  fertile  fields. 
Notice  its  different  productions  —  its  infinite  variety  of  soil  and 
climate.  See  its  mighty  rivers  winding  their  way  to  the  very 
mountain's  base,  and  thence  guiding  man  to  the  vast  ocean,  di- 
viding, yet  connecting  Nations.  Can  any  man  who  considers 
these  things,  with  the  eye  of  a  philosopher,  not  read  the  design  of 
the  great  Creator  (written  legibly  in  his  works),  that  his  children 
should  be  drawn  together  in  a  free  commercial  intercourse,  and 
mutual  exchanges  of  the  various  gifts  with  which  a  bountiful 
providence  has  blessed  them?  Commerce,  Sir,  restricted  even  as 
she  has  been,  is  the  great  source  of  civilization  and  refinement 
all  over  the  world.  Next  to  the  Christian  religion,  I  consider  Free 
Trade,  in  its  largest  sense,  as  the  greatest  blessing  that  can  be  con- 
ferred upon  any  people."  It  was  not  free  trade,  pure  and  simple, 
that  he  advocated,  but  a  tariff  for  revenue,  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  government,  limiting  "protection  to  articles  necessary  to  national 
defence" ;  but  that  fact  did  not  destroy  the  force  and  beauty  of  the 
passage  quoted.  From  this  he  passed  to  a  consideration  of  the 
inequality  and  injustice  of  Clay's  proposition:  "We  tell  you,  Sir, 
that  the  protecting  duties  operate  as  a  tax  upon  us  and  as  a  bounty 
to  the  tariff  States.  We  insist  that  it  is  a  violation  of  the  principles 
on  which  our  government  is  founded  and  reduces  us  to  a  state  of 
colonial  vassalage  —  and  this  it  substantially  does,  if  we  are  not 
mistaken  in  its  operation,  and  Mr.  Grattan's  definition  of  a  colony 
is  the  true  one:  'A  country  governed  in  reference  to  the  interest 
of  another.' "     After  a  thorough  and  exhaustive  review  of  the  sub- 


STRUGGLE   FOR   CONTROL   OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA     311 

ject,  which  the  above  gives  but  the  most  imperfect  conception  of, 
he  closed  with  an  appeal  which  should  have  protected  him  for  all 
time  from  the  accusation  of  "  nourishing  the  seeds  of  disunion." 
"  Sir,  I  call  upon  gentlemen  upon  all  sides  of  the  House  to  meet  us 
in  the  true  spirit  of  conciliation  and  concession.  Remove,  I  ear- 
nestly beseech  you,  from  among  us  this  never  failing  source  of 
contention.  Dry  up  at  its  source  this  fountain  of  the  waters  of 
bitterness.  Restore  that  harmony  that  has  been  disturbed  —  that 
mutual  affection  and  confidence  which  has  been  impaired.  It  is 
in  your  power  to  do  it  this  day ;  but  there  is  but  one  means  under 
heaven  by  which  it  can  be  effected,  and  that  is  by  doing  equal 
justice  to  all.  And  be  assured  that  he  to  whom  the  country  shall 
be  indebted  for  this  blessing  will  be  considered  as  the  second 
founder  of  the  republic.  He  will  be  regarded  in  all  after  times  as 
the  ministering  angel,  visiting  the  troubled  waters  of  our  political 
dissensions  and  restoring  to  the  element  its  healing  virtues."  l 

1  Speech  of  R.  Y.  Hayne,  "  Reduction  of  the  Tariff."      Printed  by  Jonathan 
Elliott,  1832  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  Washington,  p.  43. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

CLAY  THREATENS  SOUTH  CAROLINA  IN  HIS  REPLY.  HAYNE'S  ERROR 
IN  SUPPORTING  CLAY,  WEBSTER  AND  CALHOUN  IN  THEIR 
OPPOSITION  TO  VAN  BUREN'S  APPOINTMENT.  HE  SUPPORTS 
BENTON  IN  SUSTAINING  JACKSON'S  VETO  OF  THE  BANK  BILL 
AGAINST    CLAY   AND   WEBSTER 

Hayne's  speech  was  replied  to  by  Ewing  of  Ohio,  in  a  strong, 
fair  presentation  of  the  opposing  argument;  and  by  Clay,  with 
all  the  force  and  power  that  great  debater  could  bring  to  bear  upon 
it,  marked  by  the  usual  intemperance  and  inexactitude  of  that 
statesman.  Following  the  example  of  Webster,  in  the  great  debate, 
Clay  spared  his  real  opponent,  in  this  case,  Hayne,  and  fell  heavily 
upon  old  Senator  Smith  of  Maryland,  who  was  for  concessions  to 
the  South.  Ewing  and  Clay  both  did  attack  Hayne's  weakest 
point ;  but  not  as  effectively  as  they  might  have  done,  they  sharing, 
in  all  probability  his  belief  that  manufactures  could  not  prosper 
in  the  South.  Of  the  two  speeches,  Ewing's  was  pitched  upon  the 
higher  plane,  and  from  it  Hayne,  later,  drew  a  strong  argument 
in  support  of  his  great  railroad  scheme.  Clay's  speech  was  rather 
truculent  in  parts,  although  very  complimentary  to  Hayne,  from 
whom  he  sought  to  draw  some  admission  which  might  enable  him 
to  emulate  Webster's  peroration  in  behalf  of  the  Union.  But 
Hayne  refused  to  be  drawn,  and  so  clearly  expressed  himself  that 
Clay  was  obliged  to  express  his  satisfaction,  which  he  did  as  follows : 
"I  am  happy  to  hear  this  explanation.  But,  Sir,  it  is  impossible 
to  conceal  from  our  view  the  facts  that  there  is  great  excitement 
in  South  Carolina;  that  the  protective  system  is  openly  and  vio- 

312 


CLAY   THREATENS   SOUTH   CAROLINA   IN   HIS   REPLY      313 

lently  denounced  in  popular  meetings  and  that  the  Legislature  had 
declared  its  purpose  of  resorting  to  counteracting  measures  —  a 
suspension  of  which  has  only  been  submitted  to  for  the  purpose  of 
allowing  Congress  to  retrace  its  steps.  With  respect  to  this  Union, 
Mr.  President,  the  truth  cannot  be  too  generally  proclaimed,  nor 
too  strongly  inculcated,  that  it  is  necessary  to  the  whole  and  all 
the  parts;  necessary  to  those  parts  indeed  in  different  degrees; 
but  vitally  necessary  to  each,  and  that  threats  to  disturb  or  dis- 
solve it,  coming  from  any  of  the  parts,  would  be  quite  as  indiscreet 
and  improper  as  would  be  threats  from  the  residue  to  exclude  those 
parts  from  the  pale  of  its  benefits.  The  great  principle  which  lies 
at  the  foundation  of  all  free  government  is  that  the  majority  must 
govern,  from  which  there  is  or  can  be  no  appeal  but  to  the  sword. 
That  majority  ought  to  govern  wisely,  equitably,  moderately  and 
constitutionally;  but  govern  it  must,  subject  only  to  that  terrible 
appeal.  If  ever  one  or  several  States,  being  a  minority,  can  by 
menacing  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  succeed  in  forcing  an  abandon- 
ment of  great  measures  deemed  essential  to  the  interests  and  pros- 
perity of  the  whole,  the  Union  from  that  moment  is  practically 
gone.  It  may  linger  on  in  form  and  name;  but  its  vital  spark 
has  fled  forever.  Entertaining  these  deliberate  opinions,  I  would 
entreat  the  patriotic  people  of  South  Carolina  to  pause.  ...  To 
advance  is  to  rush  on  certain  and  inevitable  disgrace  and  destruc- 
tion." » 

There  is  truth  in  this,  undeniable  truth,  and  true  states- 
manship would  have  avoided  the  risk,  save  under  an  imperative 
necessity,  making  it  incumbent  to  back  up  words  with  deeds. 
A  concession  to  an  appeal  at  this  time  would  have  been  true  wis- 
dom. Yet  Clay  was  the  one  prominent  man  whose  egotism  stood 
in  the  way  of  a  just  settlement.     John  Quincy  Adams  and  Andrew 

1  Speech  of  Henry  Clay  in  "Defence  of  the  American  System."  Printed  by  Gales 
&  Seaton,  p.  31. 


314  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

Jackson  both  desired  concessions.  Webster  was  quiescent ;  Clay 
alone  obdurate  and  threatening.  He  pushed  through  his  amend- 
ment, which  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  23  for,  to  18  *  against. 
Webster  and  his  great  admirer,  Chambers  of  Maryland, 
failed  to  vote,  as  also  Naudain  of  Delaware,  Dallas  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, Ruggles  of  Ohio,  Robinson  of  Illinois  and  Mangum  of 
North  Carolina,  all  of  whom  did  vote  with  the  majority  on  the  final 
vote,  except  Mangum,  who  voted  with  the  minority.  Defeated  for 
the  Presidency  in  the  same  year,  and  realizing  that  South  Carolina 
had  put  the  matter  to  the  test,  Clay  was  mainly  instrumental  in 
forcing  Congress  in  the  following  year  to  retrace  the  steps  he  had 
most  positively  insisted  upon  that  body  taking  in  this. 

Later  in  this  last  session,  Hayne  joined  with  Clay  and  Webster 
in  refusing  to  confirm  the  appointment  of  Van  Buren  as  Minister 
to  Great  Britain,  according  to  the  Unionist  press  of  his  own  State, 
on  account  of  "the  supposed  influence  of  Van  Buren  in  breaking 
up  the  cabinet, "  2  and  according  to  the  Savannah  Gazette,  by  whom 
he  was  designated  as  the  "corypheus"  of  the  Free  Trade  party, 
because  Van  Buren  had  produced  a  breach  between  the  first  and 
second  officers  of  the  government.  This  was  not  sufficient  ground 
for  his  action,  and,  as  he  subsequently  declared,  the  step  was  taken 
at  the  dictates  of  party,  was  against  his  judgment,  "was  unwise  and 
impolitic"  3  and  made  Van  Buren  President.  Calhoun,  however, 
according  to  Benton,  thought  that  it  would  kill  Van  Buren. 

Webster's  failure  to  vote  for  or  against  Clay's  amendment  to  the 
tariff  bill  had  been  noted  in  South  Carolina,  and  W.  Gilmore 
Simms,  in  the  leading  Union  paper,  had  asked,  "Why?"  declaring 
in  answer  to  his  own  inquiry  that  "a  question  like  the  one  before 
him,  of  such  vital  interest  to  all  parties  in  the  Union  —  to  the  Union 

1  "Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,"  Vol.  11,  pp.  425-513. 
3  City  Gazette,  March  9,  1832. 
8  Courier,  1839. 


CLAY   THREATENS   SOUTH   CAROLINA   IN   HIS   REPLY      315 

itself  —  is  not  to  be  avoided  by  the  honest  patriot.1  In  the  appor- 
tionment bill,  Webster  had  Hayne's  support  as  long  as  he  pushed 
it;  but  when,  dissatisfied  with  the  trend  of  legislation,  he  sought 
to  block  it,  Hayne  voted  against  him.  It  being  now  realized  that 
no  concessions  were  to  be  expected  from  Congress,  the  State  Rights 
party  proceeded  to  name  Hayne  for  the  post  of  Governor,  with 
Calhoun  to  succeed  him  in  the  Senate,  the  City  Gazette,  no  longer 
edited  by  Simms  but  still  union  in  sentiment,  declaring :  "  It  is  ad- 
mitted that  the  former  gentleman  is  injudiciously  pitted  against 
Clay  and  Webster,  and,  nullification  out  of  the  question,  Mr. 
Calhoun's  place  should  be  in  front  with  these  two  formidable 
politicians."  2  Yet  the  same  paper  immediately  after  states  that 
"Mr.  Hayne,  along  with  Clay  and  Webster,  has  taken  the  most 
active  part  in  warring,  as  well  against  the  foreign  as  the  domestic 
policy  of  General  Jackson's  administration."  3  While  a  few  days 
later  it  publishes  an  extract  from  the  Alexandria  Gazette,  which 
certainly  does  not  seem  to  indicate  that  Hayne  was  suffering  from 
contrast  with  any  members  of  the  Senate.  "Mr.  Hayne's  speech 
against  the  pension  bill  is  called  a  splendid  one.  We  had  the  pleas- 
ure of  hearing  him.  Mr.  Hayne  is  an  orator  of  the  finest  mould 
and  best  stamp.  We  admire  his  ardor,  his  enthusiasm.  We  like 
to  see  him  warm  with  his  subject  and  blazing  out  with  finest  zeal. 
There  is  something  in  his  manner  which  is  irresistibly  pleasing. 
His  is  the  kindling  eloquence  which  so  much  excites  the  passions. 
He  is  an  ornament  to  his  State,  to  the  Senate  and  to  the  Country."  4 
Meanwhile,  within  South  Carolina,  the  Unionists  were  striving  to 
block  nullification  with  a  call  for  a  convention  of  Southern  States, 
and  so  earnestly  that  one  of  them,  Congressman  Blair,  proposed 
in  such  to  move  for  "a  revenue  tariff  or  separation,  peaceably  if 
we  can,  forcibly  if  we  must."  5     Apparently  unaffected  by  the 

1  City  Gazette,  March  30,  1832.  2  Ibid.,  April  30,  1832. 

3  Ibid.,  May  1,  1832.  *  Ibid.,  May  16,  1832.  *  Ibid.,  May  12,  1832. 


316  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

political  strife,  the  railroad  moved  on  and  was  now  opened  for 
traffic  from  Charleston  as  far  as  New  Summerville,  a  distance  of 
22  miles.  And  now  to  add  to  the  completeness  of  his  victory  on 
the  tariff,  and  thoroughly  equip  him  for  his  campaign  for  the  Presi- 
dency, Clay  brought  in  his  Bank  Bill,  never  dreaming  that  Jack- 
son would  dare  to  veto  it  on  the  eve  of  an  election,  which  was 
exactly  what  Jackson  did  do.  Clay  and  Webster  strove  in  vain  to 
pass  it  over  the  veto,  in  place  of  the  necessary  two-thirds,  rallying 
only  22;  while  Benton,  assisted  by  Hayne,  ranged  19  in  opposition. 
So  closed  this  most  important  congressional  session,  in  which  the 
last  appeal  to  reason  having  been  denied,  preparations  immediately 
began  for  an  appeal  of  a  different  nature.  Hayne' s  nine  years  in 
the  Senate,  apart  from  the  great  controversy  with  Webster,  were 
marked  by  four  great  utterances  on  questions  of  the  profoundest 
importance,  indicating  such  thorough  study,  complete  grasp,  keen- 
ness of  analysis  and  amplitude  of  illustration,  that  no  man  to-day 
is  so  learned  that  he  will  not  find  profit  from  their  perusal.  His 
speech  on  the  pension  system  is  a  great  and  convincing  argument, 
which  time  has  thoroughly  vindicated.  His  two  speeches  on  the 
tariff  are  so  exhaustive,  so  luminous,  so  reasonable  and  so  grandly 
eloquent,  that  they  can  scarcely  be  added  to  to-day.  His  speech 
on  the  negro  question,  apart  from  the  mournful  prophetic  note, 
later  illustrated  by  history,  is,  in  its  nature,  so  profoundly  thought- 
ful that  it  will  take  more  than  a  century  from  the  time  of  its 
delivery  for  its  great  wisdom  to  be  accurately  estimated. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


JAMES  HAMILTON,  Jr.,    1832. 


BOOK   III 

THE   APPEAL  TO   FORCE 

CHAPTER   I 

THE  NULLIFICATION  CONVENTION.  HENRY  MLDDLETON's  POINT. 
HAYNE  ELECTED  GOVERNOR,  FLOYD  FOR  PRESIDENT. 
hayne' s    INAUGURAL 

With  the  adjournment  of  Congress  in  July,  the  contest  opened  in 
Charleston,  between  Union  men  and  nullifiers,  over  the  election  of 
Intendant  and  Wardens  for  that  city,  in  which  the  nullifier,  H.  L. 
Pinckney,  received  1112  votes  to  950  cast  for  H.  A.  De  Saussure, 
the  Unionist  candidate,1  yet  in  the  very  heat  of  which  the  Unionist 
press  of  that  city  felt  constrained  to  allude  to  "the  spirit  of  mag- 
nanimity "  2  with  which  Hayne  had  conducted  a  controversy  with 
Drayton.  Not  content  with  this,  Hayne  exerted  himself  to  secure 
every  opportunity  for  a  fair  and  true  expression  of  opinion  on  the 
approaching,  more  important  election  of  members  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, at  which  the  question  of  calling  or  not  calling  a  convention  to 
nullify  the  tariff  act  would  be  decided ;  and  a  committee,  consist- 
ing of  R.  Y.  Hayne,  Henry  Deas,  Paul  Axson,  Thomas  Lehre,  Jr., 
and  Charles  Parker,  in  behalf  of  the  State  Rights  and  Free  Trade 
party,  and  William  Drayton,  James  L.  Petigru,  F.  Y.  Porcher, 
John  Robinson  and  John  Stoney  for  the  Unionists,  drew  up  a  set 
of  rules  to  conduct  same.3 

1  City  Gazette,  Sept.  15,  1832.  2  Ibid.,  Sept.  5,  1832. 

3  Ibid.,  Sept.  14,  15,  1832. 

317 


318  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

Some  extracts  from  the  correspondence  of  J.  L.  Petigru  give  a 
view  from  the  Unionist  side.  Under  date  of  September  20  he 
writes:  "As  to  our  prospects,  they  are  not  as  flattering  as  I  could 
wish.  .  .  .  Cheves's  second  number  is  coming  out.  He  ought  to 
put  his  name  to  it.  Occasional  reviews  is  a  ridiculous  title  for  a 
controversial,  political  pamphlet.  As  far  as  the  manner  of  pub- 
lishing can  weaken  the  effect  of  his  opinions,  he  has  made  sure  of 
depriving  them  of  any  dangerous  authority."  And  again:  "Of 
course  you  have  seen  Calhoun's  last  piece.  I  think  that  it  requires 
answering,  and  that  he  is  entitled  to  some  credit  for  the  skill  with 
which  he  has  put  together  his  materials.  But  it  is  a  paltry  affair. 
Disconnected  from  the  excitement  of  the  day,  the  reasoning  would 
be  little  attended  to.  He  has  abandoned  the  old  ground  of  each 
party  judging  for  himself,  and  now  stands  altogether  upon  alle- 
giance, the  exclusive  and  absolute  allegiance  of  the  citizens  to  the 
State.  There  is  no  such  allegiance,  and  his  declaration,  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  the  American  People,  is  unworthy  of  a  citizen. 
...  I  hope  Mr.  Cheves  will  take  up  this  argument  and  push  him 
to  the  wall."  1  So  thoroughly,  on  the  other  hand,  did  his  oppo- 
nents respect  and  esteem  Hayne,  that  in  the  very  hour  of  their  defeat, 
when,  after  a  close  contest,  by  1448  votes  to  13 16,2  the  State  Rights 
party  elected  their  ticket  from  Charleston  to  swell  the  overwhelm- 
ing majority  for  nullification,  the  representative  Unionist  paper 
in  Charleston  declared,  "If  General  Hamilton  will  take  Calhoun 
and  McDufne  with  him,  he  may  leave  General  Hayne  and  travel 
for  six  years,  and  they  will  find  South  Carolina  the  most  happy, 
prosperous,  well-governed  people  of  God's  earth."  3  On  conven- 
ing, by  a  vote  of  30  to  13,  in  the  Senate  and  96  to  25  in  the  House, 
the  Legislature  called  the  convention  to  nullify,  and  Hayne  led  the 
ticket  of  delegates  from  Charleston,  the  Unionists  putting  up  none. 

1  Unpublished  correspondence  of  J.  L.  Petigru,  Sept.  20  and  28,  1832. 

2  City  Gazette,  Oct.  11,  1832.  3  Ibid.,  Oct.  27,  1832. 


THE   NULLIFICATION   CONVENTION  319 

Even  then,  from  outside,  men  looked  to  him,  and  Littel  of  Pennsyl- 
vania addressed  him  in  a  communication,  concerning  a  settlement 
containing  the  germ  of  reciprocity,  with  which  he  asserted  the  Presi- 
dent was  in  accord,  concluding  with  the  words,  "The  friends  of 
Free  Trade  and  the  true  American  system  in  the  Middle  and 
Eastern  States  have  through  the  long  storm  looked  to  the  South  for 
their  ablest  pilots."  1  But  nullification  was  now  assured,  and  the 
breezy  comment  of  Mr.  Petigru  indicates  what  was  expected  by 
some.  Under  date  of  November  18  he  says:  "The  Government 
is  wide  awake  to  the  plot  of  our  demagogues,  and  there  will  be  a 
scene  before  a  great  while;  for  I  understand  that  it  was  decided 
before  the  call  of  the  convention  that  the  State  shall  secede,  if 
coercion  is  attempted.  That  coercion,  very  vigorous  and  effective,  as 
far  as  the  old  man  is  concerned,  will  be  employed,  there  is  no  room  to 
doubt."  Continuing  the  expression  of  his  views,  he  says  that  it  is 
"  hard  to  predict  what  Georgia,  between  the  love  of  sedition  and  hate 
of  Calhoun,  will  decide  on."2  The  convention  met,  and  Hamilton  was 
chosen  President.  Committees  were  appointed,  and  a  subcommittee 
consisting  of  R.  Y.  Hayne,  R.  J.  Turnbull,  George  McDufne  and 
Judge  Harper  were  assigned  special  tasks.3  Harper  was  to  draft 
the  ordinance,  declaring  the  tariff  act  null  and  void,  Turnbull 
was  to  prepare  an  address  to  the  people  of  the  State  and  McDufffe 
one  to  the  people  of  the  Union ;  while  Hayne  was  to  construct  an 
exposition  of  the  proceedings  of  the  State.  But  before  the  con- 
vention could  fix  the  time  for  the  adoption  of  the  nullification  ordi- 
nance, as  February  1,  1833,  a  point  was  made  against  its  adoption 
at  all,  and  one  which  deserved  attention.  Henry  Middleton,  who 
had  succeeded  Langdon  Cheves  as  Charleston's  representative 
in  Congress,  and  upon  his  appearance  as  a  candidate  for  a  second 

1  Ibid.,  Nov.  22,  1832. 

1  Unpublished  correspondence  of  J.  L.  Petigru. 

8  City  Gazette,  Nov.  22,  1832. 


320  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

term  been  obliged  to  fight  a  hard  battle  with  Dr.  Moser,  on  the 
ground  that  the  incumbent  was  no  speaker,  had,  after  that  victory, 
stood  no  longer;  but  filled  a  diplomatic  mission.  He  had  been  a 
Governor  of  the  State  and  was  now  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
supporters  of  the  Unionist  cause,  and  his  point  deserved  serious  con- 
sideration ;  although  it  received  but  scant  recognition,  its  reception 
indicating  most  forcibly  how  slight  a  regard  a  majority  has  for  the 
arguments  of  a  minority,  even  when  its  own  cause  of  action  is  its 
oppression  by  a  greater  majority.  Middleton's  point  (that,  in  a 
matter  affecting  the  rights  of  all  the  people  so  profoundly  as  a  nul- 
lification, by  the  State,  of  acts  of  the  General  Government  would, 
no  convention  chosen  upon  a  basis  affected  by  property  representa- 
tion properly  represented  them)1  was  based  on  the  principle  that 
a  revolutionary  measure  should  have  for  its  support  the  unmis- 
takable majority  of  the  people  who  may  be  called  on  to  carry  it 
through.  But  it  was  brushed  aside,  and  the  convention  adjourn- 
ing, after  passage  of  the  ordinance,  to  take  effect,  as  provided, 
subject  to  the  call  of  the  President,  the  Legislature  reconvened  and, 
on  motion  of  Seabrook,  the  Senate  resolved  that  the  Governor  be 
requested  to  intimate  to  the  commanding  officer  of  the  Federal 
troops  in  Charleston  that  he  make  arrangements  to  move  the  troops, 
now  in  garrison  in  the  State  Citadel,  as  early  as  possible,  as  the 
accommodations  of  that  building  were  needed  for  the  arms  of  the 
State,2  a  rather  ominous  hint.  At  the  same  time  Hayne  was  criti- 
cised by  the  Unionist  press  because  of  his  omission  of  that  portion 
of  Governor  Hamilton's  address  which  called  for  the  raising 
of  12,000  troops,  when  he  read  the  same,  at  a  public  meeting;  but 
as  Duff  Green,  at  Washington,  about  the  same  time  advised  cau- 
tious behavior,  no  doubt  Hayne  was  in  accord  with  Calhoun  in 
this.  In  the  rumble  of  these  preparations  the  echoes  from  a  meet- 
ing in  which  Unionists  and  milliners  joined  to  commemorate  the  life 

1  City  Gazette,  Nov.  27,  1832.  2  Ibid.,  Dec.  8,  1832. 


THE   NULLIFICATION   CONVENTION  321 

and  deeds  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  indicate  that  the  former  found  the 
propriety  of  Hayne's  utterances  and  his  speech  in  support  of  the 
resolutions  providing  for  a  memorial,  worthy  of  his  most  successful 
efforts.  On  the  6th  of  December,  Floyd  of  Virginia  and  Lee 
of  Massachusetts  were  chosen  by  the  Legislature  for  President 
and  Vice-President,  respectively,1  on  what  particular  grounds  is 
not  clear,  save  that  through  Calhoun's  correspondence  it  appears, 
Floyd  was  a  close  personal  friend  of  Preston  (the  most  active 
propulsive  force  at  that  time  for  nullification),  and  incidentally 
Governor  of  Virginia.  Two  days  later,  the  President's  Message 
to  Congress  made  its  appearance,  almost  identical  in  its  reference 
to  the  tariff  with  the  views  expressed  by  Hayne  2  in  his  speeches, 
and  so  mild  in  its  allusions  to  the  proceedings  in  South  Carolina, 
as  to  give  great  encouragement  to  the  nulliners.  While  the  State 
had  thus,  under  the  advice  of  her  greatest  living  son,  put  herself, 
as  he  styled  it,  "on  her  sovereignty, "  far  from  her  borders,  a  voice 
was  raised  in  defence  of  one  who  had  been  her  pride  in  the  days 
of  her  greatest  national  influence.  John  Randolph,  in  querulous 
old  age,  had  criticised  William  Lowndes  and  was  promptly  rebuked 
by  the  National  Gazette  for  his  injustice  to  "a  dead  statesman, 
whose  mould  was  thought  to  be  halloed  beyond  all  hardihood  of 
cynical  or  vindictive  malice."  3 

With  the  threat  to  nullify  the  tariff  by  the  second  month  of  the 
ensuing  year,  and  with  every  energy  pushing  her  great  railroad  to 
the  borders  of  Georgia,  and  now  having  it  open  for  traffic  for  sixty- 
two  miles,  South  Carolina  was  certainly  making  a  daring  effort 
to  break  the  bonds  of  "colonial  vassalage."  On  December  13, 
by  a  vote  of  123  for  him  and  26  blank  ballots,4  Hayne  was  chosen 
Governor,  without  opposition.  He  had  just  attained  his  forty- 
first  year,  having  been  senator  for  ten  years.     Of  all  the  leaders  of 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  6,  1832.  3  Ibid.,  Dec.  12,  1832. 

2  Ibid.,  Dec.  10,  1832.  *  Ibid.,   Dec.  13,  1832. 

Y 


322  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

the  nullifiers,  the  one  pressing  forward  most  ardently  in  the  new 
policy,  and  destined  to  secure  in  the  near  future  the  handsomest 
indorsement  from  the  victorious  faction,  the  cultivated  W.  C. 
Preston,  has  left  this  account  of  Hayne' s  resignation  of  the  senator- 
ship  and  elevation  to  the  position  of  Governor:  "When  towards 
the  close  of  General  Hamilton's  administration  the  progress  of 
the  South  Carolina  controversy  with  the  General  Government 
seemed  to  lead  to  a  dangerous  collision,  all  those  in  the  State,  who 
were  actively  engaged  in  it,  with  one  accord,  turned  their  eyes  to 
General  Hayne  as  the  leader  in  the  approaching  crisis.  There  was 
no  division  of  sentiment,  no  balancing  between  him  and  others. 
His  superior,  indeed,  his  perfect  fitness  for  the  occasion,  left  us  no 
choice,  and  compelled  him  to  resign  a  station  suited  to  his  taste, 
adapted  to  his  habits,  for  which  he  had  peculiar  talents  and  in  which 
he  was  in  the  midst  of  circumstances,  promising  the  highest  grati- 
fication to  the  loftiest  ambition,  for  one  full  of  difficulties  and 
dangers,  of  labors  and  uncertainties;  but  which  necessarily  in- 
volved, at  least,  a  temporary  sacrifice  of  a  wide  field  of  National 
glory  for  a  circumscribed  sphere  of  State  duty.  His  long  and  ex- 
clusive occupation  in  public  affairs,  to  the  entire  neglect  of  his 
private,  had  made  it  inconvenient  for  him  to  encounter  the  increased 
expenses,  which  our  peculiar  condition  exacted  from  the  Governor. 
All  the  difficulties  and  peculiarities  of  his  position  were  fully  pres- 
ent to  his  mind,  and  were  the  subject  of  a  free  and  confidential 
conversation  between  him  and  several  of  his  friends.  The  inter- 
view was  protracted  until  a  late  hour  of  the  night,  and  concluded 
by  this  declaration  from  General  Hayne:  'Gentlemen,  you  think 
my  services  are  needed  by  the  State?  She  shall  have  them.  I 
acquiesce  from  a  sense  of  duty.  You  must  give  me  a  liberal  sup- 
port, and  we  will  do  the  best  we  can.' "  l  Preston,  who  himself  soon 
after  entered  the  United  States  Senate,  declares  of  the  members 

1  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  2,  p.  20. 


THE   NULLIFICATION   CONVENTION  323 

of  that  body,  that  Hayne  "had  left  upon  their  minds  a  feeling  of 
profound  respect,  and  many  of  its  wisest  and  best  members  regarded 
him  with  love  and  admiration.  Judge  White,  especially,  often 
spoke  of  him  with  enthusiasm,  and  declared  that  he  had  known 
no  man  more  fit  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  —  a  sen- 
timent in  which  very  many  concurred."  Of  Hayne's  inaugural 
as  Governor,  Mr.  Preston  declared  that  it  "was  the  most  successful 
display  of  eloquence"  he  had  "ever  heard,"  and  this,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind,  was  after  he  had  obtained  the  opportunity  of  hearing 
the  giants  of  the  United  States  Senate  in  discussions,  in  which  he 
himself  bore  no  unworthy  part.  Yet  he  thought  the  reading  of 
the  inaugural  could  not  properly  convey  any  adequate  idea  of  "  the 
images  which  the  speaking  of  it  left  upon  the  mind."  If  in  the 
perusal  of  it  there  be  lacking  those  attributes  of  kindling  eloquence 
the  tone,  the  bearing  and  the  appropriate  gesture,  yet  the  high  pur- 
pose and  devotion  to  duty  as  he  saw  it,  lend  to  it  great  dignity  and 
force.  Opening  in  a  tone  of  depression  or  melancholy,  which 
a  thorough  appreciation  of  his  position  made  almost  inevitable,  it 
rises  without  a  suspicion  of  gasconade  to  a  firm  yet  discreet  presenta- 
tion of  the  State's  case,  which  almost  impells  argument  in  reply, 
before  force  could  be  resorted  to,  and  ends  with  an  animating 
appeal.  Extracts  convey  some  idea  of  the  views  of  the  man,  if 
but  little  of  the  power  of  the  speech.  "Fellow-citizens  of  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,"  be  began,  "I  appear  before 
you  in  obedience  to  your  commands  to  take  upon  myself  the  dis- 
charge of  the  important  duties  you  have  imposed  upon  me.  The 
office  of  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  State  is  at  all  times  one  of  high 
dignity  and  trust,  and  assumes  at  the  present  juncture  very  great 
and  fearful  responsibility,  and  believe  me  when  I  say,  I  enter  on  its 
duties  with  a  sincere  distrust  of  my  abilities.  These  considera- 
tions have  not  deterred  me,  however,  from  attempting  the  discharge 
of  the  duties  confided  to  me,  convinced  that  every  man  owes  a  duty 


324  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

to  his  country  which  he  is  bound  to  perform  at  every  sacrifice. " 
He  then  asks  his  hearers  to  bear  with  him,  while  he  indicates  the 
difficulties.  "The  intense  excitement  that  prevails  in  the  bosom 
of  our  State,  the  evils  from  which  we  are  threatened  from  without 
and  the  embarrassments  that  exist  at  home,  satisfy  me  that 
exigencies  will  arise,  during  which  let  your  chief  magistrate  act 
as  he  may,  he  will  be  compelled  to  encounter  reproach  and  rep- 
rehension." These  difficulties,  however,  he  declared  would  not 
shake  his  determination  to  do  his  duty,  and  he  pledged  himself  to 
uphold  the  sovereign  authority  of  the  State,  with  regard  to  which 
he  acknowledged  no  paramount  allegiance  elsewhere.  The  carry- 
ing into  effect  of  the  ordinance  of  the  convention  and  every  act  of 
the  Legislature  and  judgment  of  the  courts  founded  on  the  same, 
he  asserted,  he  would  strive  faithfully  to  perform ;  while  in  admin- 
istering the  ordinary  affairs  of  the  office  he  would  "endeavor 
to  reconcile  the  discontent  which  prevails  among  our  people,  to 
allay  party  animosity  and  to  bring  all  of  our  citizens  to  a  recollection 
that  we  are  members  of  one  family,  and  that  our  highest  and  con- 
stant aim  should  be  in  the  greatest  degree  to  promote  each  other's 
happiness."  Passing  from  this,  he  states  his  case:  "After  ten 
years  of  unavailing  remonstrance,  in  common  with  other  Southern 
States,  South  Carolina  has  in  the  face  of  her  sisters  of  the  confeder- 
ation and  the  world  put  herself  upon  her  sovereignty.  She  has 
declared  in  the  most  solemn  manner  that  the  acts  of  Congress, 
imposing  duties  on  the  importation  of  foreign  commodities  for  the 
protection  of  manufacturers,  shall  not  be  enforced  within  her 
borders.  .  .  .  She  was  compelled  to  assert  her  just  rights  or  sink 
into  a  state  of  colonial  vassalage.  What  steps  will  be  taken  in  the 
present  emergency  by  the  other  States,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to 
foresee.  If  South  Carolina  is  not  relieved,  either  by  a  satisfactory 
adjustment  of  the  tariff  or  by  a  general  convention  of  all  the  States, 
she  has  declared  before  God  and  Man  that  she  will  maintain  the 


THE   NULLIFICATION   CONVENTION  325 

position  that  she  has  assumed;  nor  will  she  change  it  until  her 
wrongs  are  redressed,  or  until  some  mode  is  pointed  out  that  will 
relieve  her  of  her  burthens.  She  is  anxiously  desirous  of  peace; 
she  has  no  wish  to  dissolve  the  political  bonds  which  connect  her 
with  the  other  States ;  but,  with  Thomas  Jefferson,  she  does  not 
regard  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  as  the  greatest  of  evils;  she 
regards  one  as  greater,  viz.,  submission  to  a  government  of  unlimited 
power.  She  has  regarded  the  present  tariff  as  the  settled  policy 
of  the  government;  but  if  deceived,  is  willing  to  be  undeceived. 
South  Carolina  desires  that  the  question  may  be  settled,  whether 
the  General  Government  possesses  the  power  to  make  it  the  un- 
alterable policy  of  the  country.  She  appeals  to  the  Constitution, 
as  it  was  originally  adopted,  not  as  it  is  at  present  converted  into 
an  instrument  of  oppression.  Standing  on  the  basis  of  the  Consti- 
tution, she  cannot  think  that  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  drive  her 
from  her  position  by  force.  She  will  regard  any  attempt  to  force 
her  into  submission  as  severing  the  tie  which  connects  her  with  the 
confederated  States."  Then,  after  an  argument  to  show  why 
success  should  follow  the  attempt  to  have  the  question  settled,  he 
concludes  with  an  invocation,  which  breathes  the  spirit  of  high 
resolve:  "Fellow-citizens,  this  is  our  own,  our  native  land.  The 
soil  of  South  Carolina  is  rich  with  precious  blood  shed  in  defence  of 
the  sacred  liberties  we  have  received  as  our  hostage  and  which  we 
are  bound  to  transmit,  unimpaired,  to  posterity.  Here  all  the 
endearments  which  render  our  lives  pleasant  are  to  be  found. 
Here  are  the  cherished  monuments  of  our  former  happiness.  Here 
repose  in  everlasting  silence  the  bones  of  our  ancestors.  Here  are 
treasured  up  all  the  hopes  that  bind  us  to  our  country.  Let  us 
resolve,  then,  that  whatever  others  do,  although  they  may  desert 
us  in  the  present  struggle  and  give  aid  and  success  to  our  enemies, 
we  will  venture  our  all  for  Carolina."  *    He  then,  in  a  few  words, 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  15, 1832. 


326  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

announced  himself  "ready  in  the  solemn  form  prescribed  in  the 
Constitution  to  dedicate"  himself  "to  the  service  of  the  State." 
This  inaugural  put  the  policy  of  nullification,  in  its  application 
to  the  question  at  issue,  in  the  very  best  aspect  in  which  it  could 
be  viewed  as  a  mode  of  settling  "whether  the  General  Govern- 
ment possesses  the  power  to  make  it  (the  tariff  as  it  then  was) 
the  unalterable  policy  of  the  country."  The  hint  that  she  would 
submit,  if  a  general  convention  of  the  States  decided  against  her, 
strengthened  the  position  of  the  nullifying  State.  A  fair  adjust- 
ment of  the  tariff  or  the  inequitable  exercise  of  power  sanctioned, 
not  by  mere  numbers  in  the  Federal  representative  body,  but  by 
States  as  well,  was  an  unconscious  approach  to  the  referendum. 
The  placing  of  Hayne  in  the  post  of  power  and  of  danger  was 
wise.  Doubtless,  to  some  extent,  his  statements  were  not  altogether 
palatable  to  extremists;  but  by  such  their  hands  were  tied  and 
opponents  outside  estopped  from  immediate  action,  and  thus  time 
afforded  for  a  settlement.  Personally  agreeable  to  both  the  Presi- 
dent and  his  extremely  able  Secretary  of  State,  Livingston,  it  may 
be  well  believed  that  both  of  them  were  very  loath  to  sacrifice 
Hayne,  without  an  attempt  first  to  induce  him  by  argument  to 
recede ;  and  so  was  produced  that  remarkable  State  paper,  known 
as  Jackson's  proclamation,  but  which  bears  all  the  earmarks  of 
Livingston,  the  strongest  presentation  of  the  opposing  argument  to 
nullification  ever  penned. 


CHAPTER    II 

CALHOUN  SUCCEEDS  HAYNE  IN  THE  SENATE.  THE  PRESIDENT'S 
PROCLAMATION.  ITS  FORCE  AS  ESTIMATED  BY  THE  LEGISLA- 
TURE OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS'S  OPINION 
OF   IT   AND   OF   HAYNE'S    REPLY 

Upon  the  day  following  that  in  which  the  Governor  had  been 
chosen,  the  vacancy  in  the  Senate  had  been  supplied  by  the  election 
of  Calhoun,  by  a  vote  of  exactly  the  same  number,  but  cast  in 
a  slightly  different  manner.  In  place  of  the  123  votes  cast  for 
Hayne  for  Governor,  only  121  were  cast  for  Calhoun  for  senator; 
while  instead  of  the  26  blank  ballots  cast  in  the  gubernatorial 
election,  28  votes  were  divided  between  others,  named  for  the 
senatorship ;  still  Calhoun's  election  was  overwhelming,  if  it  could 
not  be  said  of  it,  as  was  the  case  with  Hayne' s,  that  it  was  without 
opposition.  From  the  time  of  his  election  until  December  28  l 
nothing  was  heard  of  Calhoun,  and  all  attention  was  concentrated 
upon  the  issue  joined  between  President  and  Governor ;  and  from 
the  terms  of  the  Proclamation,  so  different  from  the  placid  Message 
which  had  preceded  it,  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  inaugural 
drew  the  Proclamation,  and  Hayne  should  accordingly  be  known 
to  our  national  history  for  drawing  an  argument  in  support  of 
the  Union  and  against  nullification,  of  distinctly  greater  strength 
and  power  than  that  which  "  he  drew  from  the  greatest  of  American 
orators,  the  greatest  oration  of  his  life,"  even  though  that  may  be. 
Although  scarcely  any  mention  is  made  of  the  fact,  in  history, 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Dec.  28,  1832. 
327 


328  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

as  it  is  usually  written,  Edward  Livingston  had  participated  in  the 
great  debate  in  which  Hayne  and  Webster  were  the  shining  actors ; 
and  no  contribution,  in  point  of  wisdom,  equals  his  statesmanlike 
utterance  on  that  occasion.  The  perusal  even  of  his  incompletely 
reported  speech  justifies  the  comment  of  the  correspondent  of  the 
New  York  Journal  of  Commerce,  that  he  was  "a  model  of  dignity 
and  decorum  in  the  Senate  ...  a  ripe  and  liberal  statesman."  * 
He  did  not  indorse  the  remarks  of  Webster  or  of  Hayne ;  but  gave 
his  own  views,  for  the  distinct  reason,  as  alleged  by  himself,  that  he 
differed  in  greater  or  less  degree  from  every  senator  who  preceded 
him;  and  that  description  included  almost  every  speaker  in  the 
debate.  While  he  inclined  much  more  to  the  side  supported  by 
Webster,  he  sustained  the  position  of  Hayne,  not  only  that  the 
Constitution  was  a  compact,  but  "a  compact  of  each  one  with  the 
whole ;  not  as  has  been  argued  (in  order  to  throw  a  kind  of  ridicule 
on  this  convincing  part  of  the  argument  of  my  friend  from  South 
Carolina)  with  the  Government,  which  was  made  by  such  com- 
pact," 2  thereby  putting  himself  in  issue  not  only  with  Webster, 
to  whom  he  was  alluding,  but  anticipating  also  the  argument  of 
Calhoun,  in  opposition  to  this  view  of  Hayne,  brought  out  by  Cal- 
houn a  year  later  in  his  letter  of  July  26,1831.  Livingston,  indeed, 
distinctly  stated  that  he  regarded  not  only  the  contention  of  Hayne, 
that  each  State  possessed  a  constitutional  veto  upon  any  act  of  the 
whole,  whenever  in  the  opinion  of  the  Legislature  of  such  State 
the  act  was  contrary  to  the  Constitution,  dangerous,  but  also  the 
contention  of  Webster,  that  there  was  no  compact,  and  the  Union 
entirely  popular.  In  fact,  the  nearest  approach  to  the  view  of  Liv- 
ingston is  to  be  found  in  the  view,  as  set  out  by  that  statesman, 
who  contributed  most  to  the  framing  of  that  great  instrument,  in 
the  speech  in  which  he  pressed  its  adoption  on  his  native  State  in 

1  City  Gazette,  April  21,  1830. 

3  "  Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,"  Vol.  10,  p.  493. 


CALHOUN   SUCCEEDS   HAYNE   IN  THE   SENATE        329 

1788,  Charles  Pinckney.  The  view  which  had  prevailed  in  South 
Carolina  from  that  time,  until,  under  the  vigorous  assaults  of  Smith 
and  his  following  in  1825,  it  was  completely  undermined,  to  be 
overthrown  absolutely,  in  spite  of  Smith's  opposition,  by  Calhoun 
in  1832.  Edward  Livingston  was  now  Jackson's  Secretary  of 
State,  and  upon  him,  as  the  chief  adviser  of  the  administration, 
was  the  responsibility  he  had  foreshadowed  in  his  great  argument 
and  for  which  he  had  "denounced  most  vehemently  the  tariff.'' 
It  is  impossible  to  think  that  the  Proclamation  was  the  work  of 
any  other  hand  than  his.  Even  with  the  use  of  the  possibly  faulty 
word  "nation,"  the  Proclamation  fastens  with  unerring  acumen 
upon  the  weakest  point  of  the  opposing  argument,  as  did  the  sena- 
torial speech,  with  the  simple  statement,  "We  declared  ourselves 
a  nation  by  joint  not  by  several  acts,"  and  closes  with  terrific  force 
in  the  continuing  declaration,  "The  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  forms  a  government,  not  a  league,  and,  whether  it  be  formed 
by  compact  between  the  States  or  in  any  other  manner,  its  character 
is  the  same."  Then  stating  that,  on  account  of  "the  imposing 
nature  in  which  the  General  Government  had  been  challenged," 
some  reasoning  concerning  the  matter  would  be  entered  into,  the 
indication  is  distinctly  given  that  the  inaugural  drew  this.  After 
reciting  the  causes  of  discontent,  as  occasioned  by  the  tariff  and 
the  chances  of  alleviation,  the  Proclamation  says:  "It  is  true  that 
the  Governor  of  the  State  speaks  of  the  submission  of  their  griev- 
ances to  a  convention  of  all  the  States,  which  he  says  they  sincerely 
and  anxiously  seek  and  desire,  yet  the  obvious  and  constitutional 
mode  of  obtaining  the  sense  of  the  other  States  on  the  construction 
of  the  Federal  Compact  and  amending  it,  if  necessary,  has  never 
been  attempted  by  them  who  have  urged  the  State  on  to  this 
destructive  measure.  The  first  magistrate  must  have  known  that 
neither  Congress  nor  any  functionary  of  the  government  has 
authority  to  call  a  convention  of  the  States,  unless  it  be  demanded 


330  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

by  two-thirds.  If  they  honestly  desire  a  convention,  why  have  they 
not  made  application  in  the  way  the  Constitution  points  out?" 
Evidence,  also,  is  not  lacking  in  the  Proclamation  that  Hayne  was 
not  the  only  person  conscious  of  those  "  embarrassments  which 
exist  at  home."  An  overwhelming  majority  of  delegates  to  the 
convention  had  launched  nullification;  but  it  was  not  a  large 
majority  of  the  citizens  of  the  State,  and  the  very  considerable 
minority,  assembling  in  convention,  even  then,  were  framing  their 
protest.  But  the  President  was  not  content  to  depend  upon 
argument  alone,  and  in  a  sincerely  eloquent  appeal  he  called  up 
a  recollection  of  the  past  in  the  concluding  words  of  his  paper: 
"Fellow-citizens  of  my  native  State:  let  me  not  only  admonish 
you  as  the  First  Magistrate  of  our  common  country  not  to  incur 
the  penalty  of  its  laws,  but  use  the  influence  that  a  father  would 
over  his  children,  whom  he  saw  rushing  to  certain  ruin.  In  that 
paternal  language,  with  that  paternal  feeling,  let  me  tell  you,  my 
countrymen,  that  you  are  deluded  by  men  who  are  either  deceived 
themselves  or  wish  to  deceive  you.  .  .  .  There  is  yet  time  to  show 
that  the  descendants  of  the  Pinckneys,  the  Sumters,  the  Rutledges 
and  of  the  thousand  other  names  which  adorn  the  pages  of  your 
revolutionary  history,  will  not  abandon  the  Union,  to  support  which 
so  many  of  them  fought,  bled  and  died.  I  adjure  you  as  you 
honor  their  memory,  as  you  love  the  cause  of  freedom,  to  which  they 
dedicated  their  lives ;  as  you  prize  the  peace  of  your  country,  the 
lives  of  its  best  citizens  and  your  own  fair  fame,  to  retrace  your 
steps."  *  To  say  that  the  Proclamation  produced  consternation  in 
Columbia,  would  be  an  exaggeration ;  for  not  the  least  trace  of 
apprehension  was  disclosed  in  the  behavior  of  the  head  of  the  State, 
and  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  there  were  others  absolutely  un- 
daunted; but  that  it  produced  distinct  perturbation,  it  seems 
difficult  to  deny  in  the  light  of  the  description  left  by  him,  who  next 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  17,  1832. 


CALHOUN   SUCCEEDS   HAYNE   IN  THE   SENATE        331 

to  Calhoun  and  Hayne  was  probably  the  most  prominent  nullifier 
at  that  time.  Of  the  appearance  of  the  Proclamation,  W.  C. 
Preston  says:  "That  document  which  spread  terror  with  its  prog- 
ress through  the  Union  arrived  in  the  morning  in  Columbia  where 
the  Legislature  was  then  in  session,  and  was  at  ten  o'clock  laid 
before  the  committee  of  Federal  Relations.  While  that  committee 
had  it  under  consideration,  the  chairman  stepped  into  the  Executive 
Chamber  and  inquired  of  the  Governor  whether  he  would  under- 
take a  prompt  and  official  reply  to  the  Proclamation.  The  Gov- 
ernor said,  'I  will  undertake  it  if  the  Legislature  so  desire.'  At 
the  meeting  of  the  House,  the  committee  reported  the  Proclamation, 
with  a  set  of  resolutions,  amongst  which  was  one  requesting  the 
Governor  to  issue  his  counter  proclamation."  *  Mr.  Preston  goes 
on  to  state  that  "two  days  after  in  as  little  time  as  was  neces- 
sary for  the  mere  penmanship,  was  issued  a  document  whose  ele- 
gance of  composition,  elaborate  and  conclusive  argument,  just  and 
clear  constitutional  exposition,  confuted  all  the  show  of  argument 
in  the  President's  Proclamation,  tearing  away  all  the  subtle  dis- 
guises of  its  labored  sophistry,  and  rousing,  by  its  tone  of  proud 
defiance,  devoted  patriotism  and  spirited  rebuke,  all  the  highest 
feelings  of  the  country."  While  it  may  be  impossible  for  many 
to  share  this  opinion  with  Mr.  Preston,  they  may,  on  the  other  hand, 
readily  agree  with  him  that  "no  performance  could  have  been 
more  perfect  for  the  occasion."  All  that  it  was  possible  to  do, 
Hayne  did ;  and  that  he  produced  a  reply  of  distinct  power,  we  need 
not  look  to  friends  for  the  evidence  of,  having  the  testimony  of  a 
most  unfriendly  critic.  John  Quincy  Adams  had  characterized 
the  President's  Proclamation  as  "a  blistering  plaster."  2  That,  for 
Adams,  was  high  praise.  In  his  diary  for  the  date  December  26, 1832, 
appears  this  entry :  "I  received  from  A.  Fitch,  a  copy  of  Governor 

1  O'Neall,  "  Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  2,  p.  20. 

2  "Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,"  Vol.  8,  p.  511. 


332  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Robert  Y.  Hayne  of  South  Carolina  counter  proclamation  to  that 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States.  It  is  dated  the  20th,  and  is 
full  of  very  bitter  words."  ' 

But  it  was  not  the  President's  Proclamation  alone  that  the 
milliners  had  to  meet.  The  Remonstrance  and  Protest  of  the 
Union  and  State  Rights  party  in  South  Carolina  was  issued  just 
at  this  juncture,  and  framed  as  it  was  by  James  L.  Petigru  and 
C.  G.  Memminger,  in  consultation  with  Judge  D.  E.  Huger,  it  was 
a  protest  not  to  be  lightly  disregarded,  and  some  account  of  it  is 
necessary,  for  it  well  represented  one  of  what  the  Governor  had 
alluded  to  as  "the  embarrassments  that  exist  at  home." 

The  Union  convention  met  in  Columbia  during  the  legislative 
session.  Thomas  Taylor  (the  father  or  son  of  the  ex-Senator  and 
ex-Governor)  was  the  President,  and  Henry  Middleton,  David  John- 
son, Richard  I.  Manning  and  Starling  Tucker,  Vice-Presidents.2 
The  convention  was  representative  of  a  strong  minority,  and,  without 
considering  anything  beyond  the  first  four  allegations  contained  in 
the  Remonstrance,  these  will  be  found  to  constitute  a  comprehen- 
sive indictment  of  the  nullification  convention:  "First:  Because 
the  people  of  South  Carolina  elected  delegates  to  the  said  con- 
vention, under  the  solemn  assurance  that  these  delegates  would  do 
no  more  than  devise  a  peaceable  and  constitutional  remedy  for  the 
evils  of  the  protective  tariff  without  endangering  the  union  of  the 
States.  Instead  of  which  the  convention  has  passed  an  ordinance 
in  direct  violation  of  all  pledges.  Second :  Because  the  said  ordi- 
nance has  insidiously  assailed  one  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  man 
by  endeavoring  to  enslave  all  freedom  of  conscience  by  that 
tyrannical  engine  of  power,  a  test  oath.  Third :  Because  it  has 
disfranchised  nearly  one-half  of  the  freemen  of  South  Carolina,  for 
an  honest  difference  of  opinion,  by  declaring  that  those  whose 

1  "  Memoirs  of  John  Quincy  Adams,"  Vol.  8,  p.  512. 
3  City  Gazette,  Dec.  ax,  1832. 


CALHOUN   SUCCEEDS   HAYNE   IN  THE   SENATE        333 

conscience  will  not  permit  them  to  take  the  oath  shall  be  deprived 
of  every  office,  civil  or  military.  Fourth :  Because  it  has  deprived 
the  citizens  of  the  right  of  trial  by  jury."  * 

Whether  this  indictment  could  be  sustained  in  whole  or  in  part,  or 
whether  the  acts  complained  of  were  the  natural  means  by  which 
the  government  sought  to  sustain  the  power  confided  to  it  by 
majority  of  the  voters,  this  publicly  voicing  of  them,  as  acts  of 
oppression,  by  an  energetic,  determined  and  intelligent  minority, 
representing  no  small  proportion  of  the  wealth,  numbers  and  re- 
finement of  the  State's  population  and  a  goodly  number  of  her 
hardiest  sons,  constituted  no  light  embarrassment.  But  Hayne 
had  not  been  blind  to  the  difficulties  of  his  position,  and  now,  as 
they  pressed  on  him,  met  them  with  dauntless  resolution.  It  was 
no  time  for  temporizing,  no  time  for  propitiation — he  must  yield  or 
issue  what  was  practically  a  defiance;  but  in  issuing  his  defiance 
to  the  threat  of  coercion  which  the  President's  Proclamation  con- 
tained, some  attempt  must  be  made  to  meet  the  powerful  argument 
it  propounded.  Every  flaw  which  could  be  found  therein  must  be 
disclosed,  and  wherever  a  blow  could  be  given  him,  in  whose  name 
it  was  issued,  that  must  be  delivered,  if  it  could  but  serve  to  weaken 
the  force  of  the  paper.  Hayne  had,  in  addition  to  this,  a  personal 
grievance,  which  he  keenly  felt ;  but  was  of  too  chivalric  a  nature 
to  make  public.  Not  to  aid  his  cause,  dear  as  it  was  to  his  heart,  - 
would  he  use  the  private  correspondence  of  the  President,  and  this 
is  the  true  explanation  why  that  fierce,  stern,  hot-tempered  and 
fearless  veteran  took  so  meekly  the  chidings  he  received,  and 
cherished  through  them  all  an  abiding  affection  for  the  younger 
man. 

The  immense  power  of  the  argument  contained  in  the  Presi- 
dent's Proclamation  is  not  only  shown  by  the  bare  recital  of  the 
act  by  which  South  Carolina  had  empowered  her  deputies  to  attend 

1  City  Gazette,  Dec.  ax,  1832. 


334  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

the  Constitutional  Convention  in  1787,  but  is  glaringly  apparent  in 
the  phraseology  of  the  resolution  in  which  the  Governor  was  re- 
quested to  reply  to  the  President's  discussion  of  the  Constitution, 
by  the  Legislature  of  1832.  The  following  was  the  resolution: 
"Whereas  the  President  of  the  United  States  has  issued  his  procla- 
mation :  Resolved  that  his  excellency  the  Governor  be  requested 
forthwith  to  issue  his  proclamation,  warning  the  good  people  of 
the  State  against  the  attempts  of  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  seduce  them  from  their  allegiance,  exhorting  them  to  disregard 
his  vain  menaces  and  to  be  prepared  to  sustain  the  dignity  and 
protect  the  liberty  of  the  State  against  the  arbitrary  measures  pro- 
posed by  the  President." 

Could  compliment  to  the  argument  go  farther?  His  menaces 
were  vain  and  could  be  disregarded ;  but  the  people  must  be  warned 
^-against  the  seductive  power  of  his  arguments.  As  an  argument  is 
addressed  to  the  reason,  and  it  can  only  seduce  when  its  force  is 
so  irresistible  as  to  captivate,  that  seems  to  have  been  what  the 
Legislature  chiefly  feared  and  hoped  the  Governor  might  be  able 
to  counteract. 


CHAPTER  III 

hayne's  defiant  reply  to  the  president's  proclamation  and 
why  it  contained  some  bitter  words 

There  were  some  portions  of  the  Proclamation  which  Hayne 
as  a  well-trained  lawyer  realized  it  was  senseless  to  attempt  to 
rebut,  and  these  he  simply  refrained  from  alluding  to  at  all,  bending 
all  his  energies  to  the  strong  assault  he  made  upon  what  could 
be  assailed.  Secession  being  easier  to  defend  than  nullification, 
he  began  by  warning  his  hearers  or  readers  against  "  the  specious 
but  false  doctrines  that  a  State  has  no  right  to  secede ;  in  a  word,  that 
ours  is  a  national  government,  in  which  the  people  of  all  the  States 
are  represented,  and  by  which  we  are  constituted  one  people,  and 
that  our  representatives  in  Congress  are  all  representatives  of  the 
United  States,  and  not  of  the  particular  States  from  which  they 
come  —  doctrines  which  uproot  the  very  foundations  of  our  politi- 
cal system,  annihilate  the  rights  of  the  State  and  utterly  destroy  the 
liberties  of  the  citizen."  One  cannot  help  wondering  how  Hayne 
could  have  permitted  the  citizens  of  Boston  and  Virginia  to  put  him 
in  the  attitude  of  representing  them,  by  presenting  petitions  and 
advocating  same  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  if  this  was  so  danger- 
ous to  the  liberties  of  the  citizens.  But  Hayne  was  not  just  at  this 
time  occupied  with  anything  else  than  an  advocacy  of  nullification, 
and  for  such  he  was  arguing.  Condensing  the  opposing  argument, 
he  declared  that  it  was  an  "  accurate  delineation,  drawn  with  a  bold 
hand,  of  a  great  consolidated  empire  'one  and  indivisible,'  "  which 
was  just  about  what  A.  P.  Butler,  in  1825,  had  asserted  it  was,  for 

335 


336  ROBERT  Y.    HAYNE 

some  purposes,  when  he  and  others  were  contending  against  ex-Sen- 
ator Smith  and  his  followers  in  defence  of  what  were  supposed  to 
be  the  views  of  Calhoun  and  Hayne  at  that  time.  Having  reached 
a  position  upon  which  he  could  base  an  argument,  Hayne  proceeded 
to  build  as  follows:  "It  is  the  natural  and  necessary  consequence 
of  the  principles  thus  authoritatively  announced  by  the  President, 
as  constituting  the  very  basis  of  our  political  system,  that  the  Federal 
Government  is  unlimited  and  supreme,  being  the  exclusive  judge 
of  the  extent  of  its  own  powers,  the  laws  of  Congress,  sanctioned  by 
the  executive  and  the  judiciary,  whether  passed  in  direct  violation 
of  the  Constitution  and  rights  of  the  States  or  not,  are  the  supreme 
law  of  the  land."  And  here  taking  advantage  of  a  slip  in  the 
Proclamation,  he  pressed  it  into  service  with  effect,  declaring: 
"Hence  it  is  that  the  President  obviously  considers  the  words 
'made  in  pursuance  of  the  Constitution'  mere  surplusage,  and 
when  he  professes  to  recite  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution 
on  the  subject,  he  states  that '  our  social  compact,  in  express  terms, 
declares  that  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  its  Constitution  and  the 
treaties  made  under  it,  are  the  supreme  law  of  the  land, '  and  speaks 
throughout  of  the  explicit  supremacy  given  to  the  laws  of  the  Union 
over  those  of  the  States,  as  if  a  law  of  Congress  was,  of  itself  supreme ; 
while  it  was  necessary  to  the  validity  of  a  treaty  that  it  should 
be  made  in  pursuance  of  the  Constitution."  From  Livingston's 
slight  slip,  and  the  fact  that  it  was  Jackson  and  not  Livingston 
who  issued  the  Proclamation,  Hayne  was  given  an  opening,  and  if 
Livingston's  apparently  careless  statement  was  really  an  attempt 
to  save  Jackson  from  the  effect  of  his  former  attitude  with  regard 
to  a  treaty,  which  a  State  had  nullified  with  his  approval,  it  is  only 
an  illustration  of  the  danger  of  any  attempt  to  mislead  a  watchful 
and  able  opponent ;  for  on  this  misstatement  Hayne  now  fell  with 
redoubled  force,  declaring :  "  Such,  however,  is  not  the  provision 
of  the  Constitution.     That  instrument  expressly  provides  that  the 


HAYNE'S   DEFIANT   REPLY  337 

Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States,  which  shall  be  made 
in  pursuance  thereof,  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  anything 
in  the  Constitution  or  laws  of  any  State  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing. Hence  it  will  be  seen  that  a  law  of  Congress  as  such  can 
have  no  validity,  unless  made  in  pursuance  of  the  Constitution.  An 
unconstitutional  act  is  therefore  null  and  void,  and  the  only  point 
which  can  arise  in  this  case  is  whether  to  the  Federal  Government, 
or  any  part  thereof,  has  been  reserved  the  right  to  decide  authorita- 
tively for  the  States  the  question  of  constitutionality.  If  this 
is  so,  to  which  of  the  departments,  it  may  be  asked,  is  the  right  of 
final  judgment  given  ?  If  it  be  to  Congress,  then  is  Congress  not 
only  elevated  above  the  other  departments  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, but  is  put  above  the  Constitution  itself.  This,  however,  the 
President  has  publicly  and  solemnly  denied,  claiming  and  exer- 
cising, as  is  known  to  all  the  world,  the  right  to  refuse  to  execute 
acts  of  Congress  and  solemn  treaties,  even  after  they  had  received 
the  sanction  of  every  department  of  the  Federal  Government." 

If  this  were  a  resort  to  the  Tu  quoque,  it  surely  was  pressed 
well  home.  The  President's  previous  approval  of  nullification  did 
not  make  nullification  right;  but  it  hardly  lay  in  his  mouth  to 
say  it  was  treason.  Continuing  his  inquiry,  Hayne  suggested  that 
it  would  scarcely  be  pretended  that  the  executive  possessed  the 
right  of  deciding  finally  and  exclusively  as  to  the  validity  of  acts 
of  Congress ;  while  "  that  it  belongs  to  the  judiciary,  except  so  far  as 
may  be  necessary  to  the  decisions  of  questions  which  may  inciden- 
tally come  before  them,  in  cases  of  law  and  equity,  has  been  denied 
by  none  more  strongly  than  the  President  himself,  who,  on  a 
memorable  occasion,  refused  to  acknowledge  the  binding  authority 
of  the  Federal  court,  and  claimed  for  himself,  and  had  exercised, 
the  right  of  enforcing  the  laws  not  according  to  their  judgment,  but 
his  own  understanding.  And  yet  when  it  serves  the  purpose  of 
bringing  odium  upon  South  Carolina, '  his  native  state,'  the  Presi- 


33%  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

dent  has  no  hesitation  in  regarding  the  attempt  of  a  State  to  re- 
lease herself  from  the  control  of  the  Federal  judiciary  in  a  matter 
affecting  her  sovereign  rights,  as  a  violation  of  the  Constitution/' 

When  Hayne  left  this,  he  passed  from  his  strongest  ground,  and 
although  his  next  point  was  made  with  some  skill,  yet  it  cannot 
stand  the  test  of  examination  and  contains  an  unnecessary  ref- 
erence to  one  who  was  not  a  party  to  the  controversy.  Blithely, 
he  declares:  "It  surely  cannot  admit  of  a  doubt  that  by  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  the  several  colonies  became  free, 
sovereign  and  independent  States,  and  our  political  history  will 
abundantly  show  that  at  every  subsequent  change  in  their  condi- 
tion, up  to  the  formation  of  our  present  Constitution,  the  States 
preserved  their  sovereignty.  The  discovery  of  this  new  feature  in 
our  system,  that  the  States  exist  only  as  members  of  the  Union, 
that  before  the  Declaration  of  Independence  we  were  known  only 
as  United  Colonies,  and  that  even  under  the  articles  of  Confedera- 
tion the  States  were  considered  as  forming  collectively  one  Nation, 
without  any  right  of  refusing  to  submit  to  any  decision  of  Con- 
gress, was  reserved  to  the  President  and  his  immediate  predecessor. 
To  the  latter  belongs  the  invention,  and  upon  the  former  will  un- 
fortunately fall  the  evils  of  reducing  it  to  practice."  Continuing, 
Hayne  claimed  that  instead  of  a  nation  what  was  constituted  was  a 
Federal  government,  in  which  he  was  correct ;  but  when  he  added 
that  "the  States  are  as  sovereign  now  as  they  were  prior  to  the 
entry  into  the  compact — that  the  Federal  Government  is  a  confeder- 
ation in  the  nature  of  a  league  or  alliance,  by  which  so  many  sov- 
ereign States  agreed  to  exercise  their  sovereign  powers  conjointly 
.with  a  common  agency  or  functionary,"  he  came  unavoidably  into 
collision  with  the  true  basis  of  the  President's  Proclamation  and 
Jailed  utterly  to  overthrow  it,  because  it  could  not  be  overturned,  and 
nothing  establishes  this  more  irresistibly  than  the  act  by  which 
South  Carolina  commissioned  her  deputies  to  attend  the  Consti- 


HAYNE'S   DEFIANT   REPLY  339 

tutional  Convention  in  1787.1  When,  therefore,  Hayne  further 
added,  "  South  Carolina  as  a  sovereign  State  has  an  inherent  right 
to  do  all  the  acts  which  by  the  laws  of  Nations  any  prince  or 
potentate  may  of  right  do,"  he  furnished  his  adversaries  with  the 
occasion  for  trenchant  criticism.  From  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky 
resolutions  he  did  draw  support ;  but  when  he  assayed  to  meet  the 
practical  objection  to  nullification,  he  was  helplessly  pathetic: 
"The  only  plausible  objection  to  Nullification  is  that  it  may  be 
abused.  But  this  danger  is  believed  to  be  altogether  imaginary." 
And  yet  New  England,  Georgia,  Pennsylvania  and  the  President 
might  be  said,  and  almost  by  his  own  argument,  to  have  established 
the  contrary.  The  one  argument  for  nullification  was  the  incon- 
testable fact  that  it  had  been  repeatedly  used,  although,  on  this 
occasion,  attention  was  riveted  upon  the  proceedings  as  it  had  never 
been  before,  as  Livingston  well  put  it,  "on  account  of  the  imposing 
nature  in  which  the  General  Government  had  been  challenged." 
But  apart  from  all  merit  of  the  argument,  the  fact  that  an  argument 
had  been  entered  into  was  a  point  gained,  and  for  this  the  inaugural 
must  be  credited.  Not  only  was  that  the  case,  but  the  change  of 
tone  from  inaugural  to  counter  proclamation  was  an  advance; 
for  in  the  latter  there  was  not  a  breath  of  hesitation  or  depression  — 
from  first  to  last  it  rang  defiant,  and  with  it,  under  orders  from  the 
Governor,  the  Adjutant-General  of  the  State  called  for  troops. 

In  explanation  of  the  somewhat  personal  tone  of  Hayne's  reply 
to  the  Proclamation,  and  the  "  bitter  words  "  which  Adams  noted  in  it, 
the  inquiry  of  the  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Courier  and 
Enquirer  is  interesting,  coming  to  light,  as  it  did,  a  little  later: 
"Did  General  Jackson  or  did  he  not,  in  1830,  address  a  note  to 
Colonel  Hayne  approving  of  his  celebrated  speech,  now  so  much 

1  An  Act  for  Appointing  Deputies  from  the  State  of  South  Carolina  to  a  Con- 
vention of  the  United  States  to  be  held  in  the  Month  of  May,  a.d.  1787.  Statutes 
at  Large,  So.  Ca.,  Vol.  5,  p.  4. 


340  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

condemned  by  those  who  laud  the  Proclamation?  I  believe  he 
did."  Continuing,  the  correspondent  avers:  "When  I  penned 
that  interrogatory,  I  not  only  knew  that  General  Jackson  had 
written  such  a  letter,  but  I  knew  its  contents."  *  This  inquiry 
provoked  comment  from  the  Augusta  Chronicle,  the  editor  of  which 
asserted :  "  He,  General  Jackson,  did  write  such  a  letter,  the  contents 
of  which  have  long  been  known  to  us  and  are  substantially  as 
follows:  He  told  Colonel,  or  General,  Hayne  that  his  speech  (on 
Foot's  Resolution,  explaining  and  advocating  the  doctrine  of 
nullification)  was  the  best  or  one  of  the  best  he  had  ever  read,  and 
that  he  would  have  it  splendidly  bound  and  placed  by  the  side  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  works  in  the  best  place  in  his  library,  and  that  it 
was  peculiarly  worthy  of  so  distinguished  a  station."  2  If  this 
statement  be  true,  and  it  is  affirmed  by  two  unimpeached  witnesses, 
who  state  they  saw  the  letter,3  Hayne  certainly  had  some  grounds 
for  his  bitter  feelings  against  the  President ;  yet  not  one  word  con- 
cerning it  seems  to  have  fallen  from  his  lips. 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Feb.  16,  1833,  quoting  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer, 
Feb.  1,  1833. 

3  Charleston  Mercury,  Feb.  19,  1833. 
3  Harris's  "Sectional  Struggle,"  p.  331. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  SOUTH  CAROLINA  LEGISLATURE  WITH 
REGARD  TO  THE  PROCLAMATION.  THE  INTERPOSITION  OF 
VIRGINIA.       CALHOUN'S    CONFIDENCE 

The  Governor,  in  accordance  with  the  request  of  the  Legislature, 
had  issued  his  counter  proclamation,  and  Preston,  the  chairman  of 
the  committee  on  Federal  Relations,  seized  on  the  strongest  point 
therein  and  presented  it  to  the  Legislature  for  promulgation  as 
that  body's  sense  of  the  situation.  In  the  phraseology  in  which  it 
was  couched,  however,  it  constituted  more  of  an  appeal  than  a 
defiance,  for  the  resolution  was:  "That  the  Proclamation  of  the 
President  is  most  extraordinary,  in  that  he  had  silently,  and  it  is 
supposed  with  entire  approbation,  noticed  our  sister  State,  Georgia, 
avowedly  act  upon  and  carry  into  effect,  even  to  the  taking  of  life, 
>  principles  identical  with  those  denounced  by  him  in  South  Caro- 
lina." This  was  an  effective  revelation  of  the  inconsistency  of  the 
President,  to  which  Hayne  had  more  indirectly  alluded ;  but  there 
was  almost  a  plaintive  note  detected  in  it.  Indeed,  without  the  im- 
pressive attitude  of  the  Governor,  the  State  administration  would 
have  lacked  balance  and  dignity.  In  his  defiant  reply,  Hayne  had 
declared  with  perfect  truth  that  "the  system  of  tyrants  was  the 
same  in  all  ages,"  leaving  him,  whom  the  cap  fit,  to  wear  it;  but 
Holmes  in  the  Legislature,  attempting  to  improve  this,  had,  with 
turgid  eloquence,  asserted,  that  "if  he  was  about  to  die,  he  would 
not  hesitate  to  declare  that  the  President  was  the  foulest  tyrant 
who  had  ever  disgraced  the  pages  of  history."     Again  in  the  recep- 

34i 


342  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

tion  of  the  report  of  the  special  committee,  upon  the  memorial  of 
Thomas  S.  Grimke,  there  was  imparted  to  the  proceedings  almost 
an  element  of  humor.  Mr.  Grimke  was  a  very  combative,  argu- 
mentative Unionist,  who  had  shed  a  considerable  amount  of  ink 
over  the  nullification  episode ;  but  was  esteemed  by  his  opponents 
and  intimates  as  a  very  worthy  gentleman,  whose  request  to  be 
excused  from  military  duty  the  special  committee  were  quite  willing 
to  grant,  and  so  reported.  But  Mr.  Kirkland  objected,  not 
unnaturally,  on  account  of  the  apparent  inconsistency  of  putting 
the  State  upon  her  sovereignty,  and  then  excusing  people  from 
obeying  her  call.  He  did  not  think  the  Legislature  had  anything  to 
do  with  a  man's  conscience,  when  the  State  was  in  danger.  Mr. 
Holmes  advised  agreement  with  the  report,  to  avoid  debate.  He 
assured  the  Legislature  that  Mr.  Grimke  was  thoroughly  respectable 
and  sincere,  and  declared  that  no  one  who  knew  him  could  fail  to 
respect  his  scruples.  But  Mr.  Bryan  declared  that  he  had  read  Mr. 
Grimke's  latest  pamphlet,  and  that  it  was  most  inflammatory.  "  The 
gentleman  says  he  does  not  wish  to  fight,"  he  complained,  "while 
doing  everything  to  kindle  a  war."  Mr.  Frost  then  explained  that 
the  committee  had  considered  that  in  excusing  a  single  citizen,  there 
was  little  danger  of  others  following  his  example.  But  Mr.  Bryan 
could  not  be  driven  from  his  view  by  any  argument,  and  insisted  on 
a  reading ;  whereupon,  in  the  words  of  the  reporter  for  the  Mercury, 
"  the  terms  of  the  pamphlet  carried  everything  before  it,  and  the  re- 
port was  laid  on  the  table  by  a  general  vote."  In  comment,  the 
same  paper  jocularly  declared,  "Mr.  Grimke  is  some  sort  of 
Matthew  Carey  of  the  South,  and  the  House  was  quelled  at  once 
by  the  threat  of  having  one  of  his  lucubrations  poured  upon 
them."  l 

The  great  State  of  Virginia  had  meanwhile  taken  up  the  questions 
involved  in  the  acts  of  South  Carolina  and  the  Federal  government, 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Dec.  24,  1832. 


ATTITUDE   OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA  LEGISLATURE       343 

and  a  special  committee  had  reported  to  the  Legislature  their 
views  thereon,  with  regard  to  which  we  may  notice  that  they  found 
the  "  tariff  laws,  so  far  as  passed,  avowedly  and  palpably  for  pro- 
tection, unconstitutional;  that  they  would  oppose  the  tariff  by  all 
constitutional  means  and  endeavor  to  procure  a  reduction  and 
that  they  would  cooperate  with  South  Carolina  in  effecting  this 
result."  But  while  sustaining  the  nullifying  State  thus  far,  they 
stated  that  they  ''disapprove  and  regret  the  means  which  South 
Carolina  has  adopted  to  rid  herself  of  her  burden,  and  the  early 
period  prescribed  for  the  enforcement  of  her  ordinance."  Yet  any 
disappointment  which  this  may  have  occasioned  in  South  Carolina 
should  have  been  completely  dispelled  by  the  recording  of  their  ob- 
jection, "in  decided  terms  to  the  principles  assumed  in  the  Presi- 
dent's Proclamation,"  their  deprecation  of  "the  employment  of 
force"  and  their  recommendation  of  "a  general  convention,  if  the 
tariff  be  not  adjusted  in  the  present  session." 

As  in  the  minds  of  almost  all  its  advocates  at  this  time  nullifi- 
cation was  but  a  means  to  an  end,  this  action  of  Virginia  was  all 
that  could  be  expected,  and  a  private  letter  from  Governor  Hayne  at 
this  date  certainly  discloses  this  to  be  his  view.  The  letter  is  from 
Charleston,  December  29,  1832,  to  Mr.  Silas  E.  Burrus  of  New 
York,  who  indorsed  on  it,  after  Hayne' s  death,  that  the  latter  was 
one  of  his  best  friends.  The  letter  recites :  "  I  have  received  your 
letter,  covering  a  Bill  of  Lading  for  fruit,  for  which  accept  my 
thanks.  The  vessel  has  not  yet  arrived,  but  is  expected  daily. 
For  your  kind  wishes  I  am  extremely  thankful.  Be  assured  we 
,  desire  neither  dissensions  nor  civil  war.  We  have  been  compelled 
to  nullify,  after  10  years  of  patient  endurance  &  remonstrance, 
as  the  only  means  left  to  cause  our  complaints  to  be  attended  to. 
Let  the  tariff  be  modified  at  a  convention  of  the  States  called,  & 
we  shall  be  content.  If  this  be  refused,  we  shall  proceed  on  our 
course,  be  the  consequences  what  they  may.     Our  people,  at  least 


344  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

the  great  majority,  will  do  their  duty.  The  enclosed  speech  is  a 
good  index  of  the  public  mind.  Let  our  Northern  friends  ask 
themselves  whether  people,  who  think  and  feel  thus,  are  to  be  driven 
from  the  assertion  of  their  rights  by  threats  or  even  by  violence. 
We  shall  commit  no  wrong  and  will  repell  aggression,  come 
from  what  quarter  it  may.  Still  we  hope  for  peace  &  will  pre- 
serve the  Constitution  and  the  Union  if  we  can.  I  will  not  trouble 
you,  however,  further  with  politics.  .  .  ." 

During  the  period  which  had  intervened  between  the  launching 
of  the  nullification  ordinance  and  the  day  prior  to  the  date  of  this 
letter,  nothing  seems  to  have  been  heard  from  Calhoun.  On 
December  28,  1832,  however,  it  was  reported  that  on  the  day  after 
Christmas  he  had  left  South  Carolina  for  Washington,1  where 
Congress  had  met  and  adjourned  for  Christmas,  a  bill  to  modify 
the  tariff  having  been  introduced,  and  John  Quincy  Adams's 
call  in  the  House  for  the  papers  in  reference  to  the  Proclamation, 
negatived  by  a  vote  of  106  to  6$.2  Calhoun  had  stopped  on  his 
way  at  Richmond,  and  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates  had 
heard  the  debate  on  the  report  of  the  committee  on  Federal  Rela- 
tions.3 From  Washington,  immediately  upon  his  arrival,  under 
date  of  January  10,  1833,  he  wrote  his  kinsman,  James  Edward 
Calhoun:  "My  dear  James,  I  find  things  better  here  than  I 
anticipated.  Our  cause  is  doing  well.  Let  our  people  go  on;  be 
firm  and  prudent;  give  no  pretext  for  force,  and  I  feel  confident 
of  a  peaceable  and  glorious  triumph  for  our  cause  and  the  State. 
The  prospect  is  good  for  a  satisfactory  adjustment.  It  begins  to 
be  felt  that  we  must  succeed,  and  in  proportion  as  that  is  felt,  the 
disposition  to  adjust  the  controversy  increases.  The  scheme  of 
coercion  is  abandoned  for  the  present,  at  least."  4 

After  having  followed  the  development  of  the  scheme  of  nulli- 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Jan.  i,  1833.     3  Ibid.,  Jan.  8,  1833. 

'  Ibid.,  Jan.  4,  1833.  *  "Correspondence  of  Calhoun,"  p.  323. 


ATTITUDE    OF    SOUTH   CAROLINA   LEGISLATURE       345 

fication,  as  it  is  unfolded  in  the  expressions  of  the  great  actors, 
concerned  at  the  various  stages,  in  this  short  epistle,  we  read  the 
quietly  expressed  opinion  of  the  one  man  in  the  United  States 
who  knew  exactly  what  he  intended,  and  very  nearly  exactly  what 
would  be  the  result.  His  letter  of  resignation  from  the  Vice-Pres- 
idency having  been  communicated  to  the  Senate,  he  took  his  seat 
and  called  for  the  Message  of  the  President  and  the  papers  in  the 
case.  In  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  Governor  Hayne  again  met 
the  situation  in  a  manner  exactly  in  accord  with  what  was  deemed 
most  appropriate  by  the  masses,  and  which  at  the  same  time  com- 
mended itself  to  his  sincere  convictions,  and  while  unremitting  in 
his  preparations  for  defence  of  the  State,  if  attacked,  by  a  proclama- 
tion set  apart  a  day  for  fasting  and  prayer.  Apart  from  the  action 
\/of  Virginia  but  little  public  indorsement  was  accorded  the  State 
of  South  Carolina,  and  so  striking  was  this  the  case  that  in  the 
prevailing  dearth  of  State  resolutions,  mention  appears  in  the  press 
of  the  action  of  one  county  in  Alabama.  At  the  county  seat  of 
Lowndes  County,  Alabama,  Hayneville,1  resolutions  indorsing  the 
action  of  South  Carolina  were  adopted  and  transmitted  to  the 
State.  The  general  statement  was  made  later  that  private  offers 
of  assistance  poured  in ;  but  the  evidence  of  such,  not  by  any  means 
as  impressive,  was  not  made  public  apparently.  Virginia,  meantime, 
had  been  moving  most  effectively.  On  the  26th  of  January,  1833, 
Governor  Floyd  of  Virginia  wrote  to  Governor  Hayne  that  the 
Honorable  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh  had  been  appointed  as  a 
commissioner  to  confer  with  the  representatives  of  South  Carolina, 
and  upon  the  4th  of  February  this  gentleman  reached  South  Caro- 
lina, and  at  once  interviewing  the  Governor,  requested  him  to 
communicate  to  the  convention  the  resolutions  of  the  Legis- 
lature of  Virginia,  and  asked  for  a  suspension  of  the  ordinance  of 
nullification  until  the  close  of  the  first  session  of  the  next  Con- 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Jan.  19,  1833. 


346  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

gress.1  Hayne,  in  reply,  assured  him  that  he  had  already  conferred 
with  the  president  of  the  convention,  and  further,  that  "  as  soon  as 
it  came  to  be  understood  that  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  had 
taken  up  the  subject  in  a  spirit  of  friendly  interposition,  and  that  a 
bill  for  the  modification  of  the  tariff  was  actually  before  Congress, 
it  was  determined,  by  the  common  consent  of  our  fellow-citizens, 
that  no  case  should  be  made  until  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
present  Congress.' '  And  by  the  13th  of  February,  the  president  of 
the  convention  ordered  it  to  convene  on  March  11.  It  will 
be  seen  by  this  with  what  loyalty  and  intrepidity  Hayne  and 
Hamilton  sustained  Calhoun.  Weaker  or  more  selfish  men  might 
have  capitulated  to  the  Virginia  commissioner,  with  the  result 
of  a  settlement  without  Calhoun's  intervention;  for  both  the  at- 
titude of  Virginia  and  the  introduction  of  a  bill  to  reform  the  tariff 
had  been  brought  about  some  little  while  before  Calhoun  or  Clay 
took  an  active  hand  in  forcing  a  settlement  along  lines  agreed  to 
between  them.  Benton,  who  was  not  averse  to  playing  the  part  of 
pacificator  himself,  was  deeply  chagrined  to  find  that  Clay  and 
Calhoun  were  too  strong  for  any  combination  he  could  gather 
together,  and  took  his  revenge  on  Calhoun,  who  failed  to  accept 
his  assistance  by  narrating  the  history,  as  he  obtained  it  from 
Clay,  after  the  latter  had  quarrelled  with  Calhoun. 

1  Pamphlets,  "  Nullification  in  South  Carolina."      So.  Ca.  Hist.  Society,  Vol.  2, 
p.  91. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  DEBATE  ON  CLAY'S  COMPROMISE  BILL  ON  THE  TARIFF  AND 
WILKINS'S  REVENUE  COLLECTION  BILL.  SOUTH  CAROLINA 
ACCEPTS    THE    FIRST   AND   NULLIFIES    THE    SECOND 

Benton's  account  of  the  secret  history  of  the  Compromise  of 
1833  is  derived  from  Clay's  remembrance  of  the  incidents  and  his 
narration  of  them  at  a  later  period,  from  which  it  would  appear 
that  Calhoun  played  a  very  insignificant  part;  while  by  Clay  and 
his  friend  Clayton,  South  Carolina  had  been  magnanimously  res- 
cued from  her  perilous  position,  as  Jackson  was  about  to  hang 
Calhoun,  when  they  intervened.  This  preposterous  story,  which 
is  completely  disproved  by  the  narration  of  the  events  as  they 
happened,  bears  all  the  marks  of  the  egregious  vanity  of  the  great 
politician  who  fathered  it.  The  truth  is,  that  Calhoun,  all  through 
his  life,  despite  his  true  greatness,  was  something  of  a  doctrinaire, 
and  attached  too  great  importance  to  the  efficacy  of  resolutions; 
and  now  into  the  abstract  propositions  concerning  government 
he  plunged,  maintaining  the  doctrine  of  State  Rights  in  opposition 
to  Forsyth  of  Georgia,  who  gave  way  to  Grundy  of  Tennessee, 
and  he  in  his  turn  to  Webster.  Clay,  meanwhile,  had  given  notice 
that  on  the  12th  of  February  he  would  bring  in  a  bill  to  modify 
and  adjust  the  tariff,  stating  that  his  design  was  to  harmonize  the 
conflicting  interests  of  the  country  and  restore  peace,1  etc.  It  is 
quite  possible,  and  extremely  probable,  that  negotiations  passed 
between  him  and  Calhoun,  and  he  was  assured  his  offer  would  be 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Feb.  18,  1833. 
347 


i/ 


348  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

accepted;  but  when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  a  bill  had  already 
been  introduced  in  the  House  to  restore  the  duties  to  the  scale 
of  1 81 6,  there  were  other  reasons  than  magnanimous  ones  to  move 
him.  A  tariff  for  revenue,  Hayne's  view,  with  protection  only  for 
articles  necessary  for  national  defence,  had  been  the  recommenda- 
tion of  the  victorious  Presidential  candidate  in  his  Message  to 
Congress,  and  something  had  to  be  done  by  Clay  at  once,  or  his 
recent  overwhelming  defeat  would  be  carried  on  to  an  effacement. 
The  leaders  of  the  State,  whom  he  had  so  solemnly  warned  of  the 
ruinous  consequences  of  their  course,  had  unhesitatingly  pushed  on 
in  it.  The  man  whose  eloquent  appeal  for  justice  he  had  denied, 
and  whose  State  he  had  threatened,  now  as  Governor  defied  the 
Federal  administration;  and  yet  that  hand  which  had  never 
hesitated  to  strike  before,  and  ever  with  terrific  force,  had  been 
stayed  by  some  unseen  power  or  occult  influence.  Within  easy 
reach  of  Clay  was  his  old  companion  at  arms,  with  a  practical 
power  of  attorney  from  the  recalcitrant  State.  Was  it  not  better 
to  aid  him  to  a  victory  than  to  permit  Jackson,  unaided,  to  gain 
one  ?  To  ask  himself  the  question,  was  to  answer  it  in  the  affirma- 
tive, and  so  his  bill  was  introduced,  and  he  made  a  very  clever  speech 
in  support  of  it.  Doubtless  the  kindly  nature  of  the  man,  as  well 
known  and  appreciated  as  his  weaknesses  were  tolerated  through- 
out his  long  political  life,  impressed  upon  his  hearers  the  sincerity 
of  his  professed  objections  to  bloodshed  and  civil  war;  while,  under 
the  spell  of  his  oratory,  many  forgot  his  windy  threats  of  the  pre- 
vious year.  In  his  turn  he  practically  apologized  for  nullification, 
speaking  of  it  as  an  experiment.  He  went  farther;  he  asserted 
that  he  had  received  assurances,  that  it  was  an  experiment.  He 
cited  other  cases  of  practical  nullification  by  other  States,  the  real 
argument  in  its  defence.  Then  he  took  a  survey  of  the  possibilities 
of  sudden  change  in  the  tariff,  which  he  would  deplore;  and  then 
he  showed  how  his  bill  provided  for  a  gradual  change.     And 


THE   COMPROMISE   OF    1833  349 

having  made  an  able  political  speech,  he  sat  down  with  his  usual 
confidence  that  the  result  would  justify  his  effort.  But  he  did  not 
escape  unscathed;  for,  according  to  the  papers  of  the  day,  "Mr. 
Forsyth  rose  after  Mr.  Clay  and  opposed  the  proposal  to  introduce 
the  bill.  He  reproached  Mr.  Clay  with  having  originated  all  the 
discontents  of  the  times  by  his  advocacy  of  the  American  System, 
which  he  was  now  seeking  credit  for  allaying."  l  Calhoun's 
statement,  however,  that  he  assented  to  the  two  principles  of  the 
bill,  viz.,  that  time  should  be  given  the  manufacturers  and  that  an 
ad  valorem  duty  should  be  provided  for,  was  received  with  applause 
by  the  galleries ;  and  although  both  Webster  and  Dickerson  opposed 
the  bill,  in  spite  of  the  suggestion  of  the  latter,  that  it  should  be 
referred  to  the  committee  on  Manufactures,  it  was  referred  to  a 
select  committee,  consisting  of  Clay,  Clayton,  Calhoun,  Grundy, 
Webster,  Rives  and  Dallas. 

While  Clay's  bill  for  the  reduction  of  duties  was  thus  put  on  its 
way,  the  revenue  collection  bill,  which  had  been  reported  by 
Wilkins  of  Pennsylvania,  came  up  for  debate.  Calhoun's  speech 
on  that  occasion  is  described  by  Benton  as  a  most  remarkable 
one,  and  of  a  lengthy  extract  which  he  quotes,  in  which  Calhoun 
gave  his  "opinion  of  the  defects  of  our  duplicate  form  of  govern- 
ment (State  and  Federal),  and  of  the  remedy  for  those  defects," 
Benton  says,  "  Every  word  bears  the  impress  of  intense  thought."  2 
There  were  replies  to  him;  but  of  all  of  these  none  struck  the  sense 
of  the  mass  of  the  people  as  forcibly  as  Forsyth's :  "  Much  ingenuity 
has  been  called  forth  in  support  of  nullification;  but  mystify  it  as 
they  please,  it  could  not  stand  the  test  of  argument.  The  doctrine 
was  preposterous;  it  was  a  mere  web  of  sophism  and  casuistry. 
And  the  arguments  in  its  favor,  if  analyzed  and  put  through  the 
alembic,  would  result  in  the  double  distilled  essence  of  nonsense. 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Feb.  20,  1833. 

3  Benton,  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  Vol.  1,  p.  336. 


350  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

But  having  thus  denounced  nullification,  he  would  admit  that  the 
position  which  South  Carolina  had  taken  had  served  one  good  pur- 
pose, that  of  opening  the  eyes  of  the  country  to  the  injustice  done 
to  the  South  by  an  odious  and  oppressive  tariff.  As  regarded  the 
tariff,  the  whole  South  were  with  South  Carolina  in  the  general 
principle  of  resistance  to  it ;  but  they  differed  with  her  in  the  mode 
which  she  had  thought  fit  to  adopt.  But  if  the  tariff  was  odious 
and  must  be  finally  put  an  end  to,  neither  could  the  course  of 
South  Carolina  be  defended  with  safety  to  the  Union.  He  looked 
forward  in  anticipation  to  the  period  as  nigh  at  hand  when  the 
protective  system  must  expire,  and,  in  like  manner,  when  nullifica- 
tion would  sink  into  the  grave.  He  hoped  to  see  them  buried  in  the 
same  tomb,  and  willingly  then  would  he  pronounce  their  funeral 
oration  and  inscribe  on  their  monument,  requiescat  in  pace.11  l 

Thirty-two  members  of  the  Senate  voted  for  the  revenue  col- 
lection or  "  force  "  bill.  Besides  his  colleague  and  himself,  Cal- 
houn drew  together  in  opposition  to  it  the  two  senators  from 
Alabama,  and  one  each  from  Kentucky,  North  Carolina,  Virginia 
and  Georgia.  The  last,  Troup,  came  most  unwillingly.  This  being 
disposed  of,  Clay  now,  against  the  protest  of  Calhoun,  amended 
his  tariff  bill  by  a  provision  that  in  the  valuation  of  imported 
articles,  "the  valuation  should  be  at  the  port  in  which  the  goods 
are  first  imported."  Calhoun  argued  that  this  would  be  a  great 
injustice  to  the  South,  as  the  price  of  goods  being  cheaper  in  the 
Northern  than  in  the  Southern  cities,  a  home  valuation  would  give 
the  former  a  preference ;  and  it  was  indeed  a  vital  principle,  as  the 
next  four  years  demonstrated.  Dallas  of  Pennsylvania,  Silsbee 
and  Webster  of  Massachusetts,  Hill  of  New  Hampshire,  Kane 
and  Benton  of  Missouri,  all  supported  him;  but  he  finally  aban- 
doned his  objection  for  fear  that  his  success  might  wreck  his  com- 
promise with  Clay.     Then  came  constitutional  objections,  and  Clay, 

1  "Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,"  Vol.  12,  pp.  111-119. 


THE   COMPROMISE   OF   1833  35  z 

who  had  declared  that  "he  flattered  himself  that  the  passage  of 
this  bill  would  again  bring  the  citizens  of  the  various  sections  of 
the  country  together  like  a  band  of  brothers,"  tauntingly  inquired 
of  Webster,  "Would  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts  send  his 
bill  forth  alone  without  this  measure  of  conciliation?"  To  which 
Webster  had  replied,  that  "  it  (the  force  bill)  was  no  more  his  bill 
than  it  was  that  gentleman's.  The  Senator  from  Kentucky  had  ex- 
pressed himself  to  be  as  much  in  favor  of  that  bill  as  he  had  himself." 

The  passage  of  the  revenue  collection  bill  was  later  regarded  by 
Calhoun  as  an  indication  that  "the  spirit  of  liberty"  was  "dead  in 
the  North,  and  he  then  said  of  it:  "It  is  of  the  very  genius  of  a 
consolidated  government  to  elevate  one  portion  of  the  community 
while  it  corrupts  the  other.  That  form  of  government  is  now 
established  by  law  under  the  bloody  act,  and  unless  there  should 
be  a  complete  reaction,  a  reaction  which  shall  repeal  that  atro- 
cious act  and  completely  reform  the  government,  we  must  expect 
and  prepare  to  sink  under  corruption  and  despotism.  ..." 

The  measure  of  conciliation  which  was  to  bring  the  country 
together  like  a  band  of  brothers  was  also  at  the  time  most  wittily 
hit  off  by  Wilde  of  Georgia,  in  the  House :  — 

"  Oh,  bel  age  quand  l'homme  dit  a  l'homme 
Soyons  freres :  ou  je  t'assomme," 

which  he  freely  translated :  — 

"  Oh,  blessed  age  when  loving  senators  vote: 
Let  us  be  brothers,  or  I'll  cut  your  throat." ! 

And  attention  at  the  time  was  directed  to  the  man  in  the  main 
responsible,  by  the  pertinent  inquiry  of  the  Telegraph,  "Why  were 
the  overtures  tendered  by  Mr.  Tazewell  and  urged  by  General 
Hayne  so  eloquently  last  year  rejected  then  and  accepted  now?"  2 
There  was  but  one  answer ;  Clay  had  in  the  meanwhile  been  over- 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Apr.  17,  1833.  2  Ibid.,  March  16,  1833. 


352  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

whelmingly  beaten  for  the  Presidency,  even  Pennsylvania  giving 
her  vote  to  Jackson. 

Yet  in  spite  of  this,  so  strong  was  the  combination  of  Clay  and 
Calhoun  in  Congress  that  no  difficulty  was  found  in  substituting 
Clay's  bill  for  that  of  Verplank,  and  passing  it  by  a  vote  of  103  to 
71  over  the  stern  and  ominous  protest  of  John  Quincy  Adams. 
In  less  than  a  week  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress  and  the  pas- 
sage of  the  two  bills  into  acts,  the  nullification  convention  came 
together,  and  Governor  Hayne  succeeded  Hamilton  as  president. 
Commissioner  Leigh  was  received  by  the  convention,  standing  and 
uncovered,  and  a  committee  of  twenty-one  members  appointed  to 
take  into  consideration  the  communication  of  the  Honorable  Ben- 
jamin W.  Leigh,  Commissioner  from  the  State  of  Virginia.  By  a 
resolution,  the  convention  requested  of  the  delegation  of  senators 
and  representatives  an  account  relative  to  the  late  proceedings,  and 
in  the  most  formal  manner  a  committee  waited  upon  them  to  con- 
vey to  them  this  request  of  the  State,  on  her  sovereignty,  which  was 
equivalent  to  a  command.  To  which  the  delegation  returned  the 
astounding  reply,  as  it  appears  in  the  report  of  this  committee  to 
the  convention,  viz.,  "that  the  gentlemen  lately  composing  our 
delegation  in  Congress,  now  in  Columbia,  deem  it  unnecessary, 
as  a  body,  to  give  any  exposition  of  the  acts  of  Congress  referred 
to,  but  that  the  views  of  those  who  are  members  of  the  convention 
on  the  subject  will  be  submitted  to  the  convention."  *  This  was 
the  most  extraordinary  act  in  the  nullification  proceeding.  There 
was  absolutely  no  reason,  compatible  with  any  idea  of  fairness, 
that  the  responsibility  of  all,  and  especially  of  Calhoun,  should  be 
shunted  off  upon  the  shoulders  of  Senator  Miller  and  Representa- 
tive Barnwell,  simply  because  they  happened  to  be  members  of 
the  convention,  as  well  as  representatives  of  the  State  in  Congress ; 
and  the  fact  that  they  acquitted  themselves  extremely  well,  in  the 

1  Nullification  Pamphlets,  Vol.  2,  p.  no.     So.  Ca.  Hist.  Society. 


THE   COMPROMISE   OF   1833  353 

execution  of  the  task,  does  not  excuse  the  others.  It  is  impossible 
to  avoid  the  impression  that  this  extraordinary  reply  to  the  State 
"on  her  sovereignty"  was  given  to  spare  the  feelings  of  Calhoun; 
for  while  Representative  Barnwell  gave  the  convention  sound  and 
statesmanlike  advice,  he  did  not  hide  from  the  convention  the  fact 
*  that  the  State  had  not  secured  her  exact  demand,  and  was  not 
bound  to  accept  the  solution;  still,  he  thought  the  adjustment 
satisfactory.  R.  Barnwell  Smith,  rising  more  and  more  into  promi- 
nence, did  not  oppose  the  settlement,  but  declared  openly  and 
unreservedly  that  it  was  no  triumph.  The  convention,  however, 
very  wisely  rescinded  the  "ordinance  to  nullify  certain  acts  pur- 
porting to  be  laws  laying  duties  on  the  importation  of  foreign 
commodities,"  on  the  ground  that  Congress  by  an  Act  recently 
passed  had  provided  for  such  a  reduction  and  modification  of  the 
duties  as  would  ultimately  reduce  them  to  the  revenue  standard, 
and  no  more  revenue  should  be  raised  than  what  should  be  neces- 
sary to  economically  defray  the  expenses  of  the  government,  and, 
after  nullifying  the  Act  to  provide  for  the  collection  of  duties  on 
imports,  dissolved  March  18,  1833. 1 

Four  nights  later,  the  Governor  was  toasted  at  the  celebration 
of  St.  Patrick's  Day  as  follows :  "  His  Excellency  Governor  Hayne : 
With  firmness  and  prudence,  seldom  surpassed,  he  has  guided  his 
bark  of  state  through  a  stormy  night,  and  only  now  can  feel  the 
pleasure  of  success  in  his  perilous  voyage."  2  This  was  the  opin- 
ion of  his  supporters;  but  Judge  O'Neall,  who  was  in  opposition, 
confirms  it  in  words  as  strong :  "He  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his 
office  in  a  most  critical  moment  of  time.  One  false  step  would 
have  involved  the  State  in  the  horrors  of  a  domestic  civil  war; 
for  a  large  portion  of  her  citizens  were  in  open  and  avowed  hostility 
to  her  measures."  3 

1  Ibid.  3  Charleston  Mercury,  March  22,  1833. 

•  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  2,  p.  15. 
2A 


354  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Hayne  himself  narrated  to  Bishop  Elliott  one  instance  where 
he  did  not  fail  to  take  the  false  step  from  any  lack  of  urging. 
That  was  on  the  occasion  of  a  rumor  that  the  Unionists  in  Charleston 
proposed  to  board  in  the  night  a  vessel  bringing  arms  for  the  State, 
when  many  of  his  friends  besought  the  Governor  to  order  out  a 
volunteer  company,  to  which  appeal,  with  that  strong  common 
sense  and  sound  judgment  which  fitted  him  so  eminently  for 
leadership,  Hayne  positively  refused  to  accede,  declaring  that  it 
would  be  the  very  step  to  precipitate  bloodshed.  "In  the  present 
state  of  excitement,"  he  asserted,  "nothing  could  prevent  a 
bloody  collision  between  armed  parties  meeting  at  night  in  the 
streets.  No,  gentlemen,  I  am  determined  that  if  in  this  contro- 
versy blood  must  be  shed,  the  first  drop  must  be  shed  by  our 
opponents."  1 

To  Hayne,  therefore,  the  settlement  was  most  satisfactory,  for 
he  certainly  had  performed  his  task  to  the  satisfaction  of  himself, 
his  supporters  and  his  opponents ;  but  to  Calhoun,  while  the  world 
esteemed  it  a  great  victory  achieved  by  him,  there  were  ingredients 
most  distasteful.  Brooding  over  his  theory  of  government,  it 
had  become  to  him  something  more  than  that  which  it  undoubt- 
edly was  when  first  launched  by  him.  As  late  as  June  16,  183 1, 
he  was  prepared  to  accept  calmly,  and  without  complaint,  the 
determination  of  his  friends  that  they  could  not  "prudently 
maintain  the  position  he  was  then  about  to  assume";  but 
in  his  letter  to  Van  Deventer  of  March  24,  1833,  his  confi- 
dence in  "  a  peaceable  and  glorious  triumph  for  our  cause  and  the 
State"  has  been  rudely  shaken,  and  he  writes  from  Fort  Hill  at  the 
conclusion  of  it  all :  "Your  letters,  as  well  as  all  that  I  see  and  hear, 
satisfies  me  that  the  spirit  of  liberty  is  dead  in  the  North ;  and  but 
confirms  the  truth  of  the  principles  for  which  I  have  contended 
under  so  many  difficulties.     It  is  of  the  very  genius  of  a  consolidated 

1  O'Neali,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  2,  p.  31. 


THE   COMPROMISE   OF    1833  355 

Government  to  elevate  one  portion  of  a  community,  while  it  cor- 
rupts the  other.  That  form  of  Government  is  now  established  by 
law  under  the  bloody  act,  and  unless  there  should  be  a  complete 
reaction,  a  reaction  which  shall  repeal  that  atrocious  act  and  com- 
pletely reform  the  Government,  we  must  expect  and  prepare  to 
sink  under  corruption  and  despotism.  .  .  .  The  oppressed  States 
must  act  on  the  principle  systematically,  that  no  unconstitutional 
act  shall  be  enforced  within  their  respective  limits.  There  is  no 
other  remedy.  We  have  commenced  the  system,  and  as  it  re- 
gards the  tariff  the  most  difficult  of  all  acts  to  resist,  with  en- 
couraging success.  I  have  no  doubt  the  system  has  got  its  death 
wound.  Nullification  has  dealt  the  fatal  blow.  We  have  applied 
the  same  remedy  to  the  bloody  act.  It  will  never  be  enforced  in 
this  State.  Other  States  may  live  under  its  reign,  but  Carolina  is 
resolved  to  live  only  under  that  of  the  Constitution.  There  shall 
be  at  least  one  free  State."  * 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  pp.  323-324. 


CHAPTER   VI 

CHARLESTON,  AS  SHE  APPEARED  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  NULLIFICA- 
TION BALL  AND  THE  HAMBURG  RAILROAD  IN  1833.  POLITI- 
CAL COMMENT  NORTH 

It  may  be  well  doubted  whether  anything  was  gained  by  the 
passage  of  the  Force  bill,  for  it  excited  irritation  without  inculcat- 
ing respect.  That  it  was  an  empty  threat  was  evinced  by  the  fail- 
ure of  the  general  government  to  notice  South  Carolina's  prompt 
nullification  of  it.  The  practical  victory  in  the  contest  lay  with 
South  Carolina,  and  all  that  the  Force  bill  effected  was  to  teach 
the  South  that  secession  was  wiser  than  nullification.  The  disrup- 
tive force  of  the  incident  was  noticed  by  all  observers,  and  has  been 
commented  upon  by  all,  from  Tocqueville  to  the  "Cambridge 
History,"  as  a  menace  to  the  Union.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the 
struggle  which  only  ended  in  1865.  Before  the  incident,  even  with 
the  rank  injustice  of  the  tariff,  there  was  a  powerful  Union  senti- 
ment in  the  State,  strong  enough  to  make  threatening  head  against 
the  test  oath,  on  principle,  after  the  members  felt  themselves  de- 
serted by  the  general  government;  but  when,  through  the  tact- 
fulness  of  Hayne,  this  was  finally  adjusted,  there  was  practically 
but  one  party  in  the  State  until  Calhoun's  death,  and  in  that  but 
one  man  who  could,  with  any  pronounced  success,  oppose  his 
views  on  matters  affecting  the  State  at  large  and  the  people  as  a 
whole.  There  were  sporadic  revolts;  but,  in  the  main,  as  went 
Calhoun,  so  went  South  Carolina.  If  nullification  be  considered 
as  the  first  step  towards  secession,  then  he  who  first  broke  down  the 
belief  in  the  irrevocable  perpetuity  of  the  Union  was  in  the  greatest 

356 


THE   NULLIFICATION  BALL 


357 


degree  responsible,  and  Josiah  Quincy  was  that  individual.  His 
frank  declaration,  in  Congress,  that  the  sole  bond  of  the  Union 
was  interest,  which  could  be  broken  by  secession,  shocked 
some  of  his  hearers,  whose  patriotism  was  less  utilitarian; 
but  it  evidently  was  the  basis  of  the  American  system  with  which 
Clay  solidified  the  North  and  West  in  behalf  of  the  Union ;  while 
the  South  was  estranged  by  the  exploitation  of  her  resources  for  the 
whole,  making  her,  as  Hayne  put  it,  a  kind  of  India.  Clay  was 
more  responsible  for  nullification  than  any  other  individual  except 
Quincy;  and  if  Calhoun  came  next,  Jackson  and  Senator  Smith 
shared  with  him  the  responsibility  to  a  great  degree.  In  the  cases 
of  the  four  last  named,  personal  influences  undoubtedly  affected 
the  course  of  each  at  certain  critical  periods.  With  the  Presidency 
before  him,  Clay  was  deaf  in  1832  to  every  appeal  of  justice  or  of 
reason.  Before  his  animosity  had  been  kindled  against  Calhoun, 
Jackson  was  not  averse  to  the  threat  of  nullification,  or  even  its 
exercise,  to  secure  justice,  as  he  saw  it.  To  Senator  Smith, 
policies  which  might  elevate  to  power  Crawford,  appeared  in  a 
different  light  when  utilized  by  Calhoun.  And  nullification  was 
not  deemed  by  Calhoun  of  such  vital  importance  in  183 1,  that  it 
might  not,  with  advantage,  be  postponed  "for  Mr.  Crawford's 
movement  on  me."  Nullification,  however,  had  been  put  forth  more 
imposingly  in  South  Carolina  than  in  any  other  State,  and,  apart 
from  the  leaders,  it  is  of  interest  to  consider  the  effect  on  the  people 
of  the  State.  This  in  a  measure  it  is  possible  to  clearly  note,  from 
the  account  of  a  not  unfriendly  Yankee,  whose  description  was 
apparently  correct  enough  for  the  Mercury  to  publish  it  without 
comment.  Under  date  of  March  23,  1833,  tnis  gentleman  from 
Maine  sends  his  home  paper,  the  Portland  Advertiser,  an  account 
of  the  Ball  with  which  the  settlement  was  celebrated. 

"  The  Nullifiers  are  doing  things  in  grand  style.     This  Charleston 
is  no  laggard  in  working  off  a  fete.     The  Nullifiers  are  men  of 


358  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

taste,  men  of  little  guns  and  big  guns,  swords  and  cutlasses,  great 
spunk  and  fine  speeches,  pretty  ladies  and  pretty  dances.  Who 
would  not  be  a  Nullifier  and  live  in  such  a  land,  feed  on  such  chiv- 
alry and  enjoy  such  a  ball  ?  .  .  .  As  a  Yankee  under  good  aus- 
pices I  went  last  evening  into  the  Citadel,  the  heart  of  the  Nullified 
camp,  and  among  big-mouthed  cannon,  muskets,  fusees,  pistols, 
long  swords  and  short  swords,  king's  arms,  rifles  and  fowling 
pieces,  spears,  pikes  and  bayonets  bristling  for  horrid  war,  I  found 
—  think  what?  Not  less  than  1200  ladies.  What  a  place  to  put 
ladies  in,  good-hearted  creatures,  if  they  are  like  our  Northern 
belles  and  fair  ones.  .  .  .  Well,  I  went  to  the  ball  at  8  o'clock  or  a 
little  before.  It  was  in  the  Citadel,  which  is  the  armory  of  the 
State,  where  are  deposited  Carolina's  munitions  of  war,  with  which 
she  was  going  to  whip  her  twenty-three  sovereign  sisters,  with  men 
enough  to  eat  her  up,  slaves  and  all,  if  they  gave  the  Kentuckians 
but  the  quantum  of  an  eye  and  ear  apiece.  The  Citadel  is  an 
oblong  building,  perhaps  two  hundred  feet  in  length,  and  with  an 
open  area  in  the  centre,  perhaps  sixty  feet  in  width.  This  area  was 
floored  over  for  the  occasion,  a  canopy  overhanging,  and  thus  a 
grand  Magnificent  Hall  was  prepared.  The  armories  answered  for 
drawing  rooms.  .  .  .  We  hung  our  hats  on  bayonets.  Their 
muzzles  answered  for  candelabras.  .  .  .  Around  the  outside  door 
was  a  vast  multitude  of  white  people,  black  people  and  yellow  people, 
with  not  a  few  nondescripts.  Pillars  and  arches  of  lights  of  almost 
all  colors  formed  by  variegated  glasses,  in  which  were  the  lamps, 
immense  in  numbers,  were  thrown  around  the  door.  ...  '  Nulli- 
fication is  the  rightful  remedy,'  quoted  from  Jefferson  in  large 
capitals,  glared  the  spectator  in  the  face.  Rockets  and  bombs 
were  let  off  in  all  directions.  .  .  .  From  half-past  seven  until 
nine,  carriages  in  line  were  discharging  men  in  epaulettes,  plumes, 
palmetto  buttons,  green  coats,  gray  coats,  red  coats  and  black  coats, 
white  breeches,  yellow  breeches  and  black  breeches.     All  the  sol- 


THE   NULLIFICATION  BALL 


359 


diery,  the  volunteers  of  the  Empire,  came  in  the  uniform  of  their 
corps.  And  carriages  were  discharging  ladies  also,  two  at  least  to 
each  gentleman.  Ladies  in  white,  in  black,  in  scarlet,  in  blue; 
ladies  in  hats  and  feathers  of  all  fashions.  .  .  .  No  two  ladies 
looked  alike.  .  .  .  Now  let  us  go  into  the  Hall.  A  more  magnifi- 
cent picture  was  to  be  seen.  We  ascended  a  flight  of  stone  stairs, 
walked  along  an  ornamented  piazza  or  corridor  interwoven  with 
imitation  flags  of  cambric  muslin  of  red  and  white  and  sprigs  of 
cedar,  live  oak  and  palmetto  leaves.  Ranges  of  card-tables  were 
spread  in  the  gentlemen's  drawing  rooms.  Rivers  of  wine  were  near. 
Refreshments  of  ices,  lemonade,  etc.  One's  head  and  hair  ad- 
justed and  hat  disposed  of,  he  was  ushered  along  the  gallery,  so  as 
to  view  the  company  below,  who,  now  the  Governor  had  entered  in 
uniform  and  epaulettes,  and  General  Hamilton  also,  in  all  the  pomp 
of  the  camp,  with  their  respective  suites,  prepared  to  dance.  Cotil- 
lions were  formed  in  the  crowd,  with  exceeding  difficulty ;  but  when 
they  were  formed,  the  black  band,  who  were  planted  somewhere  on 
high,  began  to  sound  with  horn  and  clarinet  and  drum  and  cymbal, 
and  I  know  not  what  other  instrument,  but  that  they  made  a  deaf- 
ening noise.  I  took  this  opportunity  to  go  below,  to  run  among 
the  groups,  to  see  the  cannons,  etc.  .  .  .  Under  the  staging  for 
the  band  were  long  iron  pieces  of  ordnance  with  their  mouths 
turned  to  the  company.  Back  of  them  were  five  ranges  of  supper 
tables.  .  .  .  Between  the  columns  were  medallions  with  emblem- 
atic devices  on  which  were  compliments  to  distinguished  Nullifiers 
in  South  Carolina.  Calhoun  had  one  and  was  called  'the  great 
luminary.'  McDuffie  had  one  and  was  said  to  have  the  eloquence 
of  Henry  and  heart  of  Hampden.  Hayne  had  one,  with  an  extract 
from  one  of  his  speeches.  Hamilton  had  one,  with  I  have  for- 
gotten what.  W.  R.  Davis  and  Barnwell  had  only  one,  which  was 
not  fair,  for  why  should  they  not  have  had  one  apiece  ?  Pinckney 
had  one.     Sumter  had  one  and  was  called  'an  old  cock,  whose  last 


360  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

crow  was  for  liberty. '  Turnbull  had  one,  which  called  him  Brutus. 
.  .  .  Enjoying  all  this,  and  thus  in  the  heart  of  the  Nullifiers' 
camp,  I  ran  around  some  gentlemen  and  ladies  with  that  perfect 
independence  in  which  obscurity  always  clothes  one.  I  knew  but 
few,  and  could  not  find  that  few  very  often  in  the  multitude.  Here 
was  a  bevy  of  ladies  discussing  the  merits  of  Yankees  and  Yankee 
women.  There  is  a  platoon  sweeping  over  and  demolishing  a 
half -formed  cotillion.  Here  is  the  Governor  of  the  State  in  cap 
and  plume  and  epaulettes,  with  his  amiable  lady,  wearing  the  cock- 
ade of  Carolina.  There  ex-Governor  Hamilton,  Emperor  of  the 
South,  far  less  humble  than  Napoleon,  when  only  trampling  on 
the  thrones  of  Europe.  .  .  .  Here  was  a  cluster  of  Generals, 
Colonels  and  Captains,  epauletted  to  the  ears,  with  swords  dangling 
between  their  feet,  with  spurs  sticking  into  their  heels.  There  a 
body  of  men  vaunting  the  prowess  of  Carolina.  Carolina !  Car- 
olina! Who  will  not  stand  for  Carolina?  .  .  .  The  Haynes, 
the  Hamiltons,  the  Sumters,  the  Pinckneys,  the  Calhouns,  the 
McDuffies,  the  Millers,  the  Turnbulls  of  Carolina.  Huzza  for 
Carolina!  .  .  .  Talk  of  nullification  dying  out,  it  is  nonsense, 
when  you  work  upon  the  passions  and  the  feelings  of  people  with 
such  shows.  Every  man  and  child  there  will  live  and  die  a  Nulli- 
fier.  I  was  half  a  mind  to  become  one  myself.  .  .  .  Splendid, 
mad  people,  if  this  meets  your  eye,  this  letter  from  not  an  ill- 
natured  spy  in  your  camp,  pray  take  his  advice  and  get  sober  again. 
Leave  off  drinking  these  intoxicating  draughts  of  Carolina  chivalry. 
.  .  .  Ladies,  don't  hate  the  Yankees,  the  d — n  Yankees,  as  some 
of  your  beaux  term  them.  Upon  my  word,  we  are  not  all  tin 
pedlers,  not  all  hucksters,  wooden  nutmeg,  wooden  ham  sellers, 
though  we  live  in  such  a  cold,  rocky  land,  we  must  depend  in  part 
on  our  wits.  Some  of  us  are  honest  and  won't  cheat  you.  .  .  . 
Come  down  among  us,  and  you  will  find  we  are  not  icicles  or  fog- 
banks.  .  .  .    We  like  you  better  than  you  like  us,  and  speak  better 


THE   NULLIFICATION   BALL  361 

of  you,  though  you  have  two  faults  to  our  one.  .  .  .  We  go  for 
the  Union,  because  duty,  patriotism  and  common  glory  look  that 
way,  not  because  we  are  more  interested  in  it  than  you.  .  .  . 
Hoist  up  the  star-spangled  banner  in  your  citadel.  .  .  .  Let  us 
be  all  Americans,  all  Carolinians,  all  Yankees."  ! 

While  this  is  not  an  ill-natured  picture  of  existing  conditions  and 
temperament;  while  South  Carolina  had  unquestionably  devoted 
too  much  of  her  capital  to  the  planting  of  cotton  and  purchase  of 
slaves  and  was  not  in  as  healthy  a  condition  as  she  had  been  ten  or 
fifteen  years  prior,  the  State  of  which  it  could  be  said,  as  the  Mer- 
cury truthfully  declared,  "the  locomotive  travels  over  a  greater 
extent  of  line  of  railroad  in  consecutive  miles  than  is  or  now  can 
be  done  in  any  part  of  the  world,"  2  could  not  be  disposed  of  with 
a  jest.  The  report  of  her  railroad  commissioner  showed  books 
opened  for  that  great  enterprise  March  17,  1828.  By  May  of  same 
year  experimental  line  of  five  miles  started.  August  19,  1830, 
capital  increased  to  $5i8,340,3  and  company  authorized  to  build 
from  Charleston  to  Hamburg,  a  distance  of  136  miles.  November 
7,  1832,  the  eastern  division  open  for  travel  60  miles,  and  on  date 
of  report,  May  1,  1833,  76  miles.  It  was  also  reported  that  lack 
of  intelligent  white  labor  was  impeding  the  work.  The  nullifier, 
Elias  Horry,  who  was  pressing  on  this,  for  the  time,  mighty  work, 
took  care  that  his  Unionist  predecessor,  Aiken,  should  not  lose 
credit  for  his  services.  The  total  expenses  of  the  work  to  date 
amounted  to  $831,266.  For  surveys  $35,959.35  had  been  paid  out 
and  $579,838.58  expended  in  road  construction,  independent  of 
track  laying,  which  had  cost  in  iron  and  spikes  $119,912.66.  For 
equipment,  cars,  axles  and  three  locomotives,  together  with  ex- 
pense of  work-shops,  there  had  come  an  outlay  of  $52,354.91; 
while  the   contingent  expenses    for  office  and  salaries  reached 

1  From  Portland  Advertiser,  reproduced  in  Mercury,  April  27,  1833. 
8  Charleston  Mercury,  May  7,  1833.  3  Ibid.,  May  8,  1833. 


362  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

$24,216.72,  and  the  balance  incurred  for  real  estate  and  negroes 
purchased  and  interest  on  notes.  To  supply  this,  about  $221,540 
had  been  borrowed  on  the  stock  and  from  the  State,  which  with 
the  income  from  operation  and  some  slight  gain  in  the  disposition 
of  real  estate  made  up,  with  stock  subscribed  for,  the  total  re- 
ceipts.1 

Van  Buren's  paper,  the  Washington  Globe,  did  not  hesitate  to 
assert,  however,  that  "  the  construction  of  the  Charleston  Railroad 
was  a  part  of  the  disunion  plan  of  nullification  to  make  Charleston 
a  free  port,  connect  with  the  contemplated  roads  in  Tennessee, 
rob  the  Mississippi  of  half  the  rich  freight  carried  to  market, 
blotting  out  the  river,  while  the  Old  Dominion  was  to  be  thrown 
like  a  stranded  whale  upon  the  frontier."  2 

This  affords  us  striking  evidence  of  the  breadth  and  liberality 
of  the  statesmanship  in  some  quarters  opposed  to  nullification, 
and  to  some  degree  responsible  for  it.  By  the  press  of  Charleston, 
the  comment  was  dismissed  with  the  contemptuous  inquiry,  why, 
in  such  case,  the  Union  men  of  South  Carolina  could  have  the 
effrontery  to  hold  shares  in  the  enterprise  and  buy  them  at  a  pre- 
mium ?  But  there  was  comment  from  other  sources  at  the  North, 
and  some  of  it  most  enlightening  as  indicative  of  the  fact  that 
history  has  been  twisted  in  the  writing  to  suit  subsequent  conditions. 
The  same  paper  whose  correspondent  wrote  the  amusing  account 
of  the  Nullification  Ball  in  Charleston,  the  Portland  (Maine)  Ad- 
vertiser, comments  thus  on  the  political  situation:  " Democracy 
published  Mr.  Hayne's  nullification  speech  on  satin,  Federalism 
laughed  at  the  act  and  now  Democracy  blushes.  Democracy 
clapped  Governor  Hayne,  Mr.  Calhoun,  Governor  Hamilton  and 
Mr.  McDuffie  upon  the  shoulder,  Federalism  said  they  were  all 
mad,  and  now  Democracy  says  so  too.  .  .  .  You  gave  us  Jackson 
and  lauded  him  for  his  Democracy.  .  .  .    Yankee  tact,  Yankee 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  June  21,  1833.  *  Ibid.,  June  19,  1833. 


THE   NULLIFICATION  BALL  363 

skill,  Yankee  ingenuity,  turned  all  things,  even  the  worst,  to  ad- 
vantage. .  .  .     The  President  has  come  over  to  us."  l 

This  was  in  great  part  true.  Jackson  and  Jackson's  party,  North 
and  South,  were  in  accord  with  Hayne  in  1830;  for  if  he  had  com- 
menced to  suspect  Calhoun  of  unfriendliness  as  early  as  the  time 
of  the  Great  Debate,  on  account  of  Crawford's  hints,  the  tempo- 
rizing Van  Buren  was  at  that  time  his  main  support ;  but  when,  in 
place  of  him,  the  President  leant  upon  Livingston,  he  possessed  an 
adviser  of  the  caliber  of  Calhoun  himself,  and  Livingston's  views 
commenced  to  make  themselves  felt. 

1  Ibid.,  July  24,  1833. 


CHAPTER  VII 

hayne's  character  as  evinced  by  his  declarations,  his 
temperament  as  contrasted  with  that  of  calhoun, 
the  contemplated  route  of  the  railroad  to  the  west 

IN  1833 

In  the  deplorable  dearth  of  private  correspondence  obtainable, 
the  character  of  Hayne  can  only  be  brought  out  as  it  found  illus- 
tration in  the  incidents  of  his  time  and  how  he  was  affected  by  them, 
and  how  others,  who  shared  with  him  the  responsibilities  of  a 
portion  of  the  time  were,  on  their  part,  moved.  The  reasons  given 
by  the  Governor,  in  the  fall  of  this  year,  why  he  refused  to  com- 
mute a  sentence,  passed  upon  a  negro  prisoner,  helps  to  give  an 
impression  of  Hayne's  character.  "The  sentence  in  this  case," 
he  says,  "  having  been  laid  before  me,  by  the  Court,  and  having 
carefully  examined  the  same,  together  with  a  report  of  the  testimony 
given  at  the  trial,  I  am  constrained,  by  a  sense  of  public  duty,  to 
declare  that  I  can  find  no  sufficient  ground  for  Executive  interpo- 
sition. The  prisoner  has  been  fairly  tried  and  found  guilty  of  the 
crime  of  administering  poison  to  a  large  family  of  women  and 
children.  .  .  .  Against  a  crime  so  diabolical  in  its  character,  so 
easily  consummated  and  so  difficult  of  detection,  the  law  has  lev- 
elled its  heaviest  denunciation.  .  .  .  Nor  does  the  circumstance, 
that  the  offence  in  this  case  was  committed  against  persons  of  the 
prisoner's  own  color,  and  that,  though  brought  to  the  verge  of  the 
grave,  they  have,  by  the  mercy  of  Providence,  been  restored  to 
health,  affect  his  moral  or  legal  guilt."  Then  taking  up  the  effect 
of  a  commutation  and  stating  that  it  is  that  and  not  a  pardon  which 

364 


HAYNE'S  CHARACTER  AND  TEMPERAMENT     365 

is  recommended,  he  looks  into  the  grounds  and  considers  the  effect. 
Showing  that  while  circumstantial,  the  evidence  was  most  con- 
clusive, he  is  of  the  opinion  that,  while  banishment  might  free 
the  State,  it  would  be  sending  to  sister  States  a  dangerous  indi- 
vidual, and,  as  the  Code  of  South  Carolina  does  not  recognize  im- 
prisonment for  life,  a  commutation  would  produce  an  imprison- 
ment totally  inadequate,  therefore  the  law  must  take  its  course.1 

In  the  fall  of  this  year,  Elias  Horry,  in  his  address  on  the  com- 
pletion of  the  railroad  to  Augusta,  gave  a  most  interesting  statement 
of  its  history  and  future  policy,  stating  that  the  superintendent 
had  attended  the  convention  at  Eastville,  Virginia,  near  the  North 
Carolina  boundary,  which  had  been  held  to  obtain  information 
to  strike  out  a  new  and  useful  route,  not  only  for  the  trade  of  that 
section,  but  to  connect  the  trade  of  the  Ohio  River  with  the  great 
valley  of  the  Tennessee  and  with  the  Southern  States;  that  the 
convention  at  Asheville,  North  Carolina,  had  determined  upon  a 
survey  from  that  point  to  Columbia;  that  the  Western  Railroad 
building  from  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  would  enter  South  Carolina 
through  Spartanburg  district,  with  its  point  of  destination,  Colum- 
bia, thence  to  connect  with  the  Charleston  and  Hamburg  Railroad;2 
and  that  in  response  to  applications  from  the  inhabitants  of  Barn- 
well, Edgefield,  Orangeburg,  Columbia  and  Greenville,  a  reply  had 
been  made  to  Columbia  that  if  the  people  of  that  town  would 
build  to  connect  with  the  Charleston  and  Hamburg  Railroad,  the 
latter  would,  in  all  probability,  take  the  branch  off  their  hands  at  a 
premium.3  All  these  facts  and  views  indicated  that  the  line  of 
road  would  be,  as  it  most  naturally  might  be  surmised  it  would,  to 
the  capital,  through  the  centre  of  the  State,  by  the  shortest  line 
to  the  growing  West.  But  almost  contemporaneously  with  the  ac- 
count of  this  industrial  march  came  the  ill-starred  editorial  decla- 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Sept.  12,  1833.  *  Ibid.,  Oct.  22,  1833. 

3  Ibid.,  Nov.  16,  1833. 


366  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

ration,  "The  institution  of  slavery  is  not  an  evil,  but  a  benefit."  * 
Admitting  that  in  the  past  the  South  had  entertained  a  view  to  the 
contrary,  the  organ  of  nullification  declared,  that  even  in  Virginia 
and  North  Carolina,  whence  it  was  well  aware  of  such  "formerly, 
the  great  mass  of  the  South  now  sanction  no  such  admission,  that 
Southern  slavery  is  an  evil  to  be  deprecated."  The  statement, 
therefore,  that  "this  new  doctrine  was  first  set  forth  by  Calhoun 
in  the  Senate  in  1836," 2  is  slightly  misleading.  It  was  in  all 
probability  as  strongly  his  belief  in  this  year,  1833,  as  it  certainly 
was  in  1836;  but  he  does  not  seem  to  have  been  first  in  the  expres- 
sion of  it.  Nullification  had,  however,  in  the  opinion  of  not  a 
few,  afforded  a  demonstration  concerning  the  strength,  from  a 
military  standpoint,  of  a  slave  State  of  considerable  value.  It 
also  gave  to  Calhoun  immense  power  in  the  State  of  South  Carolina. 
So  much  so,  that  it  remains  a  question  whether  the  cultivated 
Wilde  of  Georgia,  the  friend  of  Carolina  and  the  enthusiastic 
admirer  of  Lowndes,  that  brilliant  Irishman  whose  style  of  speak- 
ing recalled  to  English  hearers  Lord  Lyndhearst,  might  not  have 
had  Calhoun  in  his  mind  when,  about  this  time,  somewhat  to  the 
objection  of  the  Mercury,  he  quoted :  — 

"  It  is  the  abject  property  of  most 
That  being  parcel  of  the  common  mass 

Conscious  of  impotence,  they  soon  grow  drunk 
With  gazing,  when  they  see  an  able  man 
Step  forth  to  notice;  and  besotted  thus 
Build  him  a  pedestal  and  say,  stand  there 
And  be  our  admiration  and  our  praise." 3 

Certain  it  is  that  the  elaborate  ceremonies,  in  honor  of  the  dead 
Turnbull,   were  converted  into  a  much  greater  glorification  of 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Nov.  13,  1833. 

a  Elson,  "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  3,  p.  145. 

3  Charleston  Mercury,  Oct.  18,  1833. 


HAYNE'S   CHARACTER   AND   TEMPERAMENT  367 

Calhoun;  for  even  on  the  printed  programme  of  the  order  of 
exercises,  while  the  names  of  Turnbull,  to  be  honored,  and  Ham- 
ilton, who  was  to  deliver  the  oration  in  his  honor,  stand  out,  not 
inappropriately  in  much  bolder  type  than  that  which  designates 
the  Governor's  position  in  the  ceremony,  yet  they  all  remain  small 
in  comparison  with  the  letters  marking  the  mere  presence  of  Cal- 
houn. That  night  at  the  Circus,  Calhoun  was  given  a  reception, 
and  delivered  his  first  public  utterance  concerning  nullification 
and  the  questions  connected  with  it  since  the  adjournment  of 
Congress,  some  nine  months  previous.  He  was  no  longer  fresh 
from  the  struggle  and  smarting  from  the  debate;  he  had  had 
ample  time  to  weigh  what  he  should  say  concerning  these  matter r, 
and  his  declarations  are  most  important.  With  regard  to  nulli- 
fication, he  is  reported  as  saying,  in  substance :  "  On  the  passage 
of  the  Act  of  1828,  the  alternative  was  fairly  presented  to  the 
Southern  States  of  submission  to  the  unlimited  exactions  of  the 
Government,  or  of  calling  into  action  the  higher  principles  of  the 
Constitution.  That  thus  one  of  the  most  momentous  questions 
which  could  rise  under  the  system  was  presented,  whether 
the  States  had  any  remedy  to  protect  their  rights  when  it  was 
acknowledged  they  were  encroached  on  by  the  General  Govern- 
ment? ...  In  the  consideration  of  this  question,  there  were 
many  important  points  in  which  the  whole  South,  with  some  in- 
considerable exceptions,  were  united;  that  the  States  had  certain 
reserved  rights;  that  all  Acts  of  Congress  infringing  them  were 
null  and  void,  and  that  the  Act  in  question  was  one  of  that  descrip- 
tion. .  .  .  Yet  when  the  State  took  her  stand  upon  the  right  of 
interposition,  she  found  herself  not  only  abandoned  by  every 
Southern  ally,  but  divided  and  distracted  by  a  powerful  party 
within,  who  opposed  her  much  more  violently  than  they  had  re- 
sisted the  burden  under  which  they  were  suffering."  With  regard 
to  the  Force  Bill,  he  announced  that  "  if  all  other  effectual  resist- 


368  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

ance  should  fail,  it  would  be  their  duty  to  take  measures  to  concen- 
trate the  voice  of  the  South,  which  should  plainly  announce  to  their 
Northern  brethren  that  either  the  Bill  or  the  political  connection 
must  yield."  *  How  South  Carolina  could  concentrate  the  voice  of 
the  South  on  a  bill  she  had  solemnly  declared  did  not  exist,  Calhoun 
did  not  make  clear,  and  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  Unionist 
congressman,  Blair,  had  openly  advocated  secession  if  the  tariff 
were  not  modified,  the  intolerance  of  Calhoun  was  most  marked. 
He  spoke  not  as  the  senator  of  the  State ;  but  as  the  chief  of  a  trium- 
phant faction.  At  the  conclusion  of  Calhoun's  speech  there  were 
calls  for  Hayne,  and,  in  response,  the  Governor  excused  himself  for 
his  long  absence  from  meetings  of  the  party,  on  account  of  the 
position  in  which  he  stood  as  Executive  of  the  State,  a  position 
which  did  not,  as  he  thought,  admit  of  his  mingling  as  he  had  been 
wont  to  do  in  the  public  meetings  of  his  political  friends.  On 
this  occasion  he  declared,  however,  he  could  not  deny  himself  the 
gratification  of  accompanying  "our  distinguished  guest."  Inci- 
dentally, the  Governor  mentioned  the  preparedness  of  the  State 
in  the  recent  controversy  and  the  economical  manner  of  its  pro- 
vision. It  was  in  this  connection  that  he  used  the  expression, 
"myrmidons  of  Uncle  Sam,"  for  which  the  Unionist  press  took 
him  to  task  in  the  following :  "  Our  estimate  of  General  Hayne 
induced  us  to  believe  he  was  above  indulging  in  such  undignified 
slang,"  reflecting,  "on  men  as  high  minded  as  himself."2  Al- 
though pleasantly  put,  the  rebuke  was  just. 

Only  a  few  days  after  this  meeting  the  Legislature  convened, 
and  the  Governor's  Message  was  laid  before  that  body.  It  is  an 
interesting  paper,  and  nothing  is  calculated  to  more  clearly  illus- 
trate the  difference  in  temperament  of  Calhoun  and  Hayne  than 
their  allusions  to  the  same  subjects,  about  the  same  time,  viz.,  the 
reception  of  nullification  at  home  and  abroad.      The  tone  of  bit- 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Nov.  25,  1833.        a  Charleston  Courier,  Nov.  26,  1833. 


HAYNE'S   CHARACTER   AND   TEMPERAMENT  369 

terness  in  Calhoun's  utterance,  so  marked  as  to  be  unjust,  to  "the 
powerful  party  within"  and  allies  without,  is  entirely  absent  in  the 
almost  identical  statement  by  Hayne,  "  Unhappily  divided  at  home 
and  cheered  by  no  friendly  voice  from  abroad,"  with  which  the 
latter  described  the  situation.  "Yet,"  he  continues,  "twenty 
thousand  volunteers  were  organized  in  a  few  weeks,  arsenals  and 
military  depots  were  established.  .  .  .  The  happy  effect  of  these 
defensive  measures  was  immediately  perceived,  in  the  liberal 
offers  of  assistance,  which  poured  in  upon  us  from  every  quarter 
of  the  Union,  in  the  altered  tone  of  our  oppressors  and  in  the 
growing  confidence  of  the  friends  of  State  Rights  and  free  trade 
everywhere.  The  manufacturers  themselves  began  to  perceive 
that,  strong  as  their  system  was,  it  could  not  be  sustained  in  public 
opinion  by  violence  and  bloodshed."  '  In  reference  to  the  Com- 
promise Act,  the  Message  contains  a  statement  of  historical  im- 
portance, on  account  of  the  position  which  Hayne  had  occupied 
the  year  previous,  namely,  the  recognized  leader  of  the  opposition 
in  the  Senate.  Of  the  act  he  says:  "Though  the  measure  did 
not  yield  all  that  the  South  had  an  unquestioned  right  to  demand 
...  an  opportunity  was  offered  for  adjustment,  which  consistent 
with  the  principle  on  which  we  had  all  along  acted,  we  were  not  at 
liberty  to  reject.  Such  a  modification  of  the  tariff  in  1832  would 
have  unquestionably  prevented  the  adoption  of  our  ordinance  of 
nullification."  With  regard  to  the  Force  Bill,  he  contented  him- 
self with  the  declaration,  "It  is  greatly  to  be  lamented  that  the 
act  should  have  been  followed  by  the  Force  Bill."  Then  taking 
up  a  matter  to  which  he  had  forcibly  alluded  six  years  prior,  in 
his  great  speech  in  the  Senate,  on  the  Colonization  Bill,  he  ob- 
serves, "It  is  a  popular  delusion,  that  slave-holding  States  are 
comparatively  weak,  and  the  idea  has  sometimes  been  indulged 
that  we  owe  a  large  debt  of  gratitude  to  our  Northern  brethren, 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Nov.  29,  1833. 


370  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

for  the  protection  they  have  afforded  us."  But  this  he  disputes 
by  showing  how  recent  events  had  indicated  the  State's  ability 
to  put  "  20,000  men  in  the  field,  without  any  material  diminution 
of  her  agricultural  production."  And,  "Though  the  enemies  of 
our  institution  (deeming  the  occasion  favorable  to  their  scheme) 
were  busily  employed  in  circulating  incendiary  publications  among 
us  (several  of  which  fell  into  my  hand),  yet  not  a  whisper  of  discon- 
tent was  heard  in  the  land  and  never  did  our  people  feel  themselves 
so  entirely  secure  from  all  insurrectionary  movements."  Com- 
menting on  this  and  other  aspects  of  the  case,  to  wit,  the  proverbial 
jealousy  of  freemen  in  slave-holding  States  with  regard  to  their 
own  rights  and  their  disposition  to  make  sacrifices  for  such,  he 
remarks:  "I  think  we  may  very  safely  conclude  that  the  existence 
of  slavery  in  the  South  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  '  an  evil  only  to  be 
deplored' ;  but  that  it  brings  along  with  it  corresponding  advan- 
tages in  elevating  the  character,  contributing  to  the  wealth,  en- 
larging the  resources  and  adding  to  the  strength  of  the  States  in 
which  it  exists  and,  in  our  own  country  in  particular,  in  eminently 
contributing  to  the  prosperity  and  welfare  of  the  Union;  while 
at  the  same  time  we  have  the  consolation  to  know  that  our  labor- 
ing population  are  in  a  condition  greatly  superior  to  that  which 
they  have  ever  occupied  in  their  own  country  or  are  perhaps 
destined  to  assume  for  ages  to  come,  in  any  quarter  of  the 
globe." 

Whether  we  agree  with  Hayne  or  not,  considering  his  time,  his 
situation  and  his  environment,  this  is  well  said.  But  even  to  this 
he  imparts  additional  interest  in  the  declaration,  "These  remarks 
are  made  in  no  boastful  or  invidious  spirit;  but  to  correct  the  im- 
pression of  -  dependence  and  to  assert  the  existence  of  'no  bond' 
between  the  Southern  States  and  their  Northern  brethren  but  the 
Constitution,  no  ties  but  mutual  support  and  common  interest, 
the  glorious  recollections  of  the  past  and  the  proud  anticipations 


HAYNE'S   CHARACTER   AND   TEMPERAMENT  371 

of  the  future  —  ties  the  force  of  which  they  have  ever  been  ready 
to  acknowledge  and  will  be  the  last,  voluntarily,  to  sever." 

The  contrast  between  this  and  Calhoun's  declaration  that 
"either  the  Bill  (Force  Bill)  or  the  political  connection  must  yield," 
marks  most  acutely  the  difference  between  the  tempers  and  methods 
of  the  two  men.  This  first  Message  of  Hayne  was,  in  the  main, 
devoted  to  matters  political ;  but  he  finds  time  for  other  consider- 
ations, and  in  some  of  his  recommendations  the  character  of  the 
man  shines  out  clearly.  "In  examining  our  criminal  code,"  he 
says,  "it  has  struck  me  that  it  is  susceptible  of  improvement. 
Though  the  rigor  of  the  English  common  law  has  been  greatly 
ameliorated  amongst  us,  yet  something  still  remains  to  be  done 
to  bring  it  into  harmony  with  the  liberal  spirit  of  the  age.  Some 
barbarous  punishments,  and  especially  that  of  branding,  still  dis- 
grace our  statute  books.  Our  laws  for  the  government,  treatment 
and  punishment  of  slaves  and  other  persons  of  color  also  require 
revision.  In  relation  to  slaves,  my  own  experience  and  observa- 
tion have  thoroughly  convinced  me  that  some  reform  is  impera- 
tively called  for.  While  rigid  discipline  should  be  enforced,  the 
law  ought,  at  the  same  time,  to  afford  complete  protection  against 
injustice."  1  That  he  doubted  whether  they  always  received  jus- 
tice, is  evidenced  by  the  further  statement,  "  The  courts  before 
which  slaves  must  now  be  tried  for  crimes  of  every  description 
are  liable  to  be  so  arranged  as  to  deprive  them  of  an  impartial 
trial."  To  remedy  this,  he  recommends  that  the  freeholders  to 
try  same  be  drawn,  as  juries  are  drawn,  and  the  Attorney- General 
of  the  State  charged  with  the  conduct  of  all  capital  cases.  Taking 
up  the  subject  of  internal  improvement,  in  the  light  of  the  work 
accomplished  by  the  railroad,  he  is  of  the  opinion  that  private 
is  more  efficacious  than  public  effort,  and  among  various  other 
suggestions,  unnecessary  to  enumerate,  occur  two,  one  bearing 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Nov.  29,  1833. 


372  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

on  the  suggested  test  oath  and  the  other  concerning  an  amendment 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  State  in  reference  to  nullification,  with 
regard  to  which  the  organ  of  the  Unionists  observes,  "On  the 
matter  of  the  Test  Oath,  the  Governor  is  disposed  to  conciliate, 
and  if  this  very  unnecessary  measure  be  prescribed  in  a  manner 
wholly  free  from  a  spirit  of  proscription,  there  can  be  no  great 
occasion  for  complaint."  '  Conceding  praise  to  the  spirit  of 
humanity  pervading  the  suggestions  of  the  same  official  as  to  the 
criminal  code,  that  paper  dismisses  the  argument  concerning 
nullification  with  the  trenchant  criticism  that  if  the  State  possess 
the  sovereignty  under  discussion,  no  amendment  to  the  Constitu- 
tion is  necessary ;  if  not,  no  amendment  can  give  it. 

1  Charleston  Courier,  Nov.  29,  1833. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  INTOLERANCE  CROPPING  OUT.  THE  PROGRESS  OF 
THE  RAILROAD.  THE  TEST  OATH  AND  HAYNE'S  TACTFUL  IN- 
FLUENCE.     NULLIFIERS   AND    UNIONISTS    COME    TOGETHER 

But  if  in  the  utterances  of  Hayne  and  some  others  there  was 
moderation,  there  were  not  lacking  those  in  whom  nullification 
had  produced  an  intolerance  that  might  be  considered  somewhat 
extreme.  The  report  of  the  subcommittee,  presided  over  by 
F.  W.  Pickens,  with  regard  to  slavery,  indicates  how  swiftly  an 
overwhelming  factional  triumph  generates  this  spirit,  and  it  was 
well  that  the  direction  of  affairs  were  in  hands  less  hasty  to  proscribe 
political  opponents ;  for  the  Unionists,  although  they  deemed  them- 
selves deserted  by  the  general  government,  were  in  numbers, 
education,  wealth  and  spirit  too  considerable  to  be  harried,  without 
some  danger  to  the  peace  of  the  State,  and  this  report  breathed 
anything  but  peace:  "We  have  a  peculiar  and  local  institution  of 
our  own,  as  a  people,  of  great  delicacy  and  momentous  concern  to 
the  very  vitals  of  society.  .  .  .  The  law  of  State  sovereignty  is 
with  us  the  law  of  State  existence.  If  there  be  any  citizen  of  South 
Carolina  who,  forgetting  all  the  ties  of  nature  and  sympathy  that 
bind  a  man  to  the  home  of  his  childhood  and  the  graves  of  his 
fathers,  should  refuse  or  hesitate  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  mother 
that  has  cherished  or  protected  him,  he  deserves  to  be  an  offcast 
and  wanderer  upon  the  earth,  without  a  home  and  feeling  for  no 
country." '    Shortly    after   this,    Calhoun    expresses   himself   as 

1  Charleston  Mercury,  Dec.  14,  1833. 
373 


374  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

"much  gratified  to  hear  that  the  session  terminated  as  well  as  it 
did,"  l  that  anxiety  was  felt  at  the  state  of  things  in  Columbia. 
What  was  the  occasion  of  this  allusion  does  not  clearly  appear. 
Senator  Miller  had  resigned  and  been  succeeded  by  W.  C.  Preston, 
according  to  the  Mercury,  without  opposition;  but  in  the  report 
of  the  Courier,  by  a  vote  of  101  to  25,  scattering,  the  latter  paper 
declaring  that  the  Legislature  was  the  mere  mouthpiece  of  the  Club, 
to  which  Calhoun  and  a  few  others  dictated  the  line  of  action. 

The  railroad  was  meanwhile  occupying  the  attention  of  the 
public  almost  as  much  as  political  affairs.  Early  in  February, 
1834,  the  locomotive  " Edgefield"  made  the  run  from  Charleston 
to  Hamburg,  136  miles,  in  7  hours  and  20  minutes.2  Better  still, 
the  road  was  no  longer  an  experiment,  as  the  weekly  receipts  were 
in  excess  of  the  expenditures; 3  while  two  months  later,  from  the 
shops  at  Charleston,  was  produced  a  locomotive  very  properly 
called  "The  Native."  At  this  time  the  road  possessed  nine  loco- 
motives, one  named  after  the  Charleston  designer  of  the  first 
locomotive  built  in  America,  "  The  E.  L.  Miller,"  the  man  to  whom 
most  credit  must  be  given  for  the  lead  his  native  State  had  taken 
in  railroading  in  America.  The  two  extremely  efficient  presidents 
of  the  company,  however,  were  not  forgotten;  and  "The  Aiken" 
and  "The  Horry"  were  both  in  evidence.  But  no  locomotive  was 
such  an  object  of  interest  as  "The  Native,"  the  first  Charleston- 
built  engine,  built  by  Messrs.  Eason  and  Dotterer,  on  contract 
at  their  own  shops,  from  the  plans  of  Mr.  Dotterer.  Of  it  the 
chief  engineer,  Horatio  Allen  (an  expert  engineer  from  the  North) , 
declared,  "In  the  extreme  simplicity  of  its  arrangements,  the 
directness  with  which  the  power  is  applied  and  the  working  parts 
operated,  as  well  as  the  substantial  character  of  the  workmanship, 
it  holds  out  the  promise  of  being  one  of  the  most  permanent 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  327.  2  Courier,  Feb.  17,  1834. 

3  Ibid.,  March  26,  1834. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   INTOLERANCE   CROPPING    OUT      375 

engines."  '  The  report  shows,  at  that  time,  fourteen  passenger 
coaches  and  ninety  freight  cars,  to  be  increased  by  July,  twenty- 
four  and  one  hundred  and  seventy  respectively.  And  again, 
under  the  able  direction  of  Elias  Horry,  a  direct  proposal  is  made 
to  Abraham  Blanding  and  others  at  Columbia,  to  construct  a 
railroad  from  Columbia  to  Branchville,  with  regard  to  the  opera- 
tion of  which  the  Charleston  and  Hamburg  Railroad  holds  out 
most  advantageous  terms.  But  the  State  was  not  yet  alive  to 
the  importance  of  this  means  of  transportation,  and  it  needed  a 
more  quickening  appeal  to  arouse  her  to  the  effort.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  in  confirmation  of  the  view  of  Professor  Smith,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  North  Carolina,  that  literary  development  follows  in- 
dustrial progress;  that  "Guy  Rivers,"  the  first  novel  of  William 
Gilmore  Simms,  was  just  about  this  time  most  favorably  received 
by  the  Northern  press,2  and  1500  of  the  first  edition  sold  at  the 
outset.  In  the  fall  of  the  year  1834,  however,  the  industrial 
advancement  of  South  Carolina  was  checked  by  the  death  of 
Elias  Horry.  In  the  summer  of  that  year,  matters  political  again 
were  bubbling  hotly.  On  June  the  4th  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  State,  with  Judge  Harper  dissenting,  declared  the  test  oath  un- 
constitutional. Partisan  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  Hayne 
to  induce  him  to  call  an  extra  session  of  the  Legislature  at  once; 
but  he  refused  to  yield  to  the  clamor,3  and  in  thus  acting  seems  to 
have  been  in  accord  with  Calhoun.  The  fall  elections  confirmed 
the  grip  the  milliners  had  secured  the  two  years  previous,  leaving 
them  still  with  the  two-thirds  in  the  Legislature;  but  the  popular 
vote  through  the  State  revealed  only  18,535  v°tes  cast  for  their 
candidates  to  14,870  4  for  their  opponents.  To  this  Legislature, 
Hayne  sent  his  last  Message.  In  it  he  took  a  gloomy  view  of  Fed- 
eral affairs.    "The  Government,"  he  declared,  "is  rapidly  degen- 

1  Ibid.,  May  5,  1834.  3  Ibid.,  July  14,  1834. 

2  Ibid.,  July  19,  1834.  4  Ibid.,  Nov.  6,  1834. 


376  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

erating  into  an  irresponsible  despotism.  With  the  purse  and  the 
sword  and  the  vast  patronage  of  a  consolidated  government  in 
his  hands,  the  President  will  appoint  his  successor.  Congress 
will  be  held  in  subjection  by  Executive  patronage,  which  will  be 
brought  into  hourly  conflict  with  freedom  of  elections;  and  if, 
under  such  disastrous  circumstances,  any  of  the  States  shall  be  able 
to  preserve  their  liberties,  they  may  not  be  able  to  preserve  the 
Union."  Passing  from  this  to  a  consideration  of  the  decision 
with  regard  to  the  test  oath,  he  alludes  to  it  as  having  been 
"argued  on  both  sides  with  an  ability  and  learning  which  con- 
ferred the  highest  honor  on  all  the  parties  concerned."  He  states 
that  he  had  deemed  it  his  duty  to  conform  to  the  decision,  and 
that  he  had  been  induced  to  refrain  from  calling  an  extra  session, 
then  loudly  demanded,  because  of  his  opinion,  that  in  the  shape 
in  which  the  oath  would  be  presented  in  the  constitutional  amend- 
ment it  would  answer  every  purpose  and  yet  be  less  objectionable. 
And  with  regard  to  this,  he  pressed  the  argument  so  vigorously 
as  to  excite  the  alarm  of  the  Unionist  organ,  which  warned  its 
readers:  "This  document  comes  upon  us  in  the  form  and  with 
the  language  of  great  moderation ;  but  we  greatly  fear  it  is  wanting 
in  candor,  and  that  deadly  mischief  lurks  under  its  honeyed  words. 
...  It  settles  that  the  oath  will  be  engrafted  on  the  Constitution. 
.  .  .  Whether  that  body,  however,  will  adopt  the  Executive 
exposition,  and  whether  that  exposition,  paltering  as  it  does  in  a 
double  sense,  will  prove  satisfactory  to  the  Union  party,  are  ques- 
tions of  doubtful  and  momentous  issue."  Continuing  its  comment 
in  a  less  suspicious  tone,  the  Courier  observes:  "We  are  fully 
disposed  to  give  the  Governor  credit  for  moderation  in  another 
part  of  his  Message.  If  we  understand  him  aright,  he  implicitly 
recommends  the  Legislature  to  abstain  from  legislation  on  the  subject 
of  State  treason,  and  perhaps  also  on  the  subject  of  the  Judiciary."  * 

1  Courier,  Nov.  28,  1834. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   INTOLERANCE   CROPPING   OUT       377 

In  its  last  surmise,  the  Unionist  organ  was  justified;  while 
with  regard  to  the  suspicions  first  expressed,  they  were  proven 
unworthy,  for  the  spirit  of  conciliation  which  the  Message  breathed 
was  imparted  to  the  majority,  and  on  December  the  24th  the 
entire  minority  signed  a  statement  of  their  reasons  for  not  further 
opposing  the  oath  in  the  new  form,  inasmuch  as  the  report  in- 
troducing it  "distinctly  declared  the  allegiance  declared  is  that 
allegiance  which  every  citizen  owes  to  the  State  consistently  with 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States."  * 

The  bill  to  define  State  treason,  and  the  one  to  alter  the  Judi- 
ciary having  both  been  dropped,  the  bitterness  and  extreme  ten- 
sion which  had  existed  in  the  State  for  nearly  four  years,  and  which 
had  reached  its  most  acute  stage  when  Hayne  was  called  to  the 
control  of  affairs  in  the  State,  he  had  thus  been  most  instrumental 
in  assuaging.  Judge  O'Neall,  one  of  the  leading  Unionists  in  the 
State,  declared  that  this  settlement  of  the  controversy  was  satis- 
factory to  the  entire  Union  party  in  South  Carolina ; 2  so  that  as 
a  healer  of  factional  strife,  after  twenty  years'  service,  Hayne 
passed  from  public  to  private  life.  With  all  energy,  eloquence 
and  power,  he  had  unavailingly  pressed  the  appeal  to  reason; 
it  had  been  unsuccessful.  With  moderation  he  had  tempered, 
restrained  and  guided  the  successful  appeal  to  force;  but  as  no 
other  man  did  or  possibly  could,  he  realized  the  responsibilities 
which  it  had  involved,  and  the  consequences  and  dangers  which 
had  followed  close  upon  the  heels  of  that  success.  Now,  with  prac- 
tical mind  and  patriotic  spirit  he  prepared  for  the  last  appeal  which 
could  be  made  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  in  his  opinion, 
without  a  change  of  views,  distinctly  threatened,  if  not  in  the 
present,  most  surely  in  the  future. 

In  this  year  of  1835  were  first  distinctly  heard  the  pre- 
monitory mutterings  of  that  storm,  which  broke  with  such  devas- 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  24,  1834.  2  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  2,  p.  17. 


378  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

tating  fury  (in  1861),  and,  in  the  same  year,  oblivious  of  every 
other  suggestion,  with  a  devotion  and  patriotism  never  surpassed, 
Hayne  flung  himself  into  the  effort  to  allay  it,  if  possible.  Owing 
his  elevation,  in  some  measure,  to  Calhoun,  he  had  supported  the 
plans  and  measures  of  the  latter  statesman  with  an  unswerving 
loyalty,  although  it  must  have  been  apparent  to  him  that  his  own 
judgment  had,  in  some  instances,  proved  the  sounder  of  the  two 
when  it  came  in  conflict  with  his  leader's,  warped  by  personal 
feeling.  The  vote  upon  the  confirmation  of  Van  Buren  was  an 
illustration ;  for  on  this  Hayne  had  mistakenly  given  way  against 
his  wiser  view,  in  deference  to  the  insistence  of  the  elder  statesman ; 
and,  in  place  of  being  politically  defunct,  Van  Buren  was  at  this 
time  recognized  as  the  most  formidable  of  all  the  Presidential 
candidates.  Now  that,  as  a  private  citizen,  freed  from  the  respon- 
sibility of  pushing  in  conjunction  with  others  particular  policies 
to  their  consummation,  Hayne  looked  at  matters  with  greater  in- 
dependence, the  possibility  of  a  difference  between  him  and 
his  great  leader  was  not  small.  Yet  this  did  not  immediately 
develop;  for  Hayne' s  strength  was  essentially  in  his  ability  to 
conciliate,  his  voice,  a  persuasive  one. 

With  the  exception  of  the  destruction  of  St.  Philip's  Church 
by  fire,  entailing  the  loss  of  an  interesting  monument  of  colonial 
times,  no  event  of  particular  interest  to  the  community  of  Charles- 
ton or  the  State  of  South  Carolina  marked  the  earlier  months  of  the 
year.  Built  in  1723,  in  point  of  architectural  beauty,  and  from 
the  tablets  and  inscriptions  within  of  historical  record,  it  was 
a  loss.  From  the  papers  narrating  the  occurrence,  it  is  gathered 
that  the  first  church  in  the  province  was  on  the  site  where  St. 
Michael's  now  stands,  a  frame  building  erected  in  1681.1 

So  absolutely  lacking  at  this  time  was  all  factional  feeling  that 
Hayne  or  Petigruwas  the  suggestion  for  Intend  ant,  which  the  whilom 
1  Courier,  Feb.  20,  1835. 


THE    SPIRIT   OF   INTOLERANCE   CROPPING   OUT       379 

Unionist  Courier  brings  forth ;  but  by  July  the  30th  all  is  tumult 
again;    no  longer  Nullifiers  against  Unionists,  but  Nullifiers  and 
Unionists   against    Abolitionists,    and    the   former    combination 
threatening  interference  with  the  operations  of  Federal  govern- 
mental functions,  as  grave  as  ever  nullification  promised. 

The  cause  of  the  excitement  was  the  discovery  of  a  great  num- 
ber of  incendiary  documents,  addressed  to  the  colored  population, 
sent  by  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North.  These  having  been  taken 
from  the  Charleston  Post-office  during  the  night-time,  by  some 
turbulent  spirits  who  had  forced  an  entrance  and  seized  upon  them, 
brought  the  citizens  face  to  face  with  a  serious  situation.  Some- 
thing had  to  be  done  at  once,  and,  under  the  guise  of  preventing 
incendiary  documents  from  being  distributed,  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  guard  same  from  the  boat  to  the  Post-office,  the 
Postmaster  undertaking  to  delay  delivery,  until  he  could  hear  from 
the  Postmaster- General.  In  this  effort  to  keep  the  turbulent  and 
excitable  elements  of  the  city's  population  within  bounds,  Hayne, 
the  private  citizen,  was  at  once  called  upon,  and  his  leadership  ac- 
cepted without  question.  As  chairman  of  the  committee  appointed 
at  the  public  meeting,  presided  over  by  the  Intendant,  he  reports 
the  arrangements  *  which  the  letters  of  Alfred  Huger,  Postmaster, 
give  the  details  of.  These  details  appearing  in  the  letter  of  a  strong 
Unionists  are  the  more  interesting  as  they  indicate  how  deter- 
minedly the  Union  feeling  was  being  stamped  and  burnt  out  of  the 
devoted  and  fearless  upholders  of  such  sentiments  in  South  Caro- 
lina by  Northern  fanatics  caring  nothing  for  it  in  their  sentimen- 
tal frenzy. 

"July  30,  1835. 
"Hon.  Amos  Kendall:  — 

"Sir:  It  gives  me  great  pain  to  inform  you  that  my  apprehen- 
sions yesterday  for  the  safety  of  the  mail  have  proved  to  be  not 

1  Ibid.,  Aug.  s,  1835. 


380  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

without  foundation.  The  excitement  to  which  I  alluded  was  even 
greater  than  I  imagined,  and  had  evidently  taken  possession  of 
men  of  all  parties  and  of  every  grade  of  society.  It  appeared 
towards  evening  to  have  subsided,  though  I  deemed  it  safest  to 
remain  and  keep  the  office  open  until  night,  and  leave  it  only  when 
everything  was  quiet  and  the  public  mind  at  rest  (apparently)  on 
the  subject.  A  little  after  midnight  I  was  called  up  by  the 
Captain  of  the  City  Guard,  with  the  intelligence  that  the  Post- 
office  had  been  forcibly  entered,  which,  upon  examination,  I 
found  unfortunately  to  be  true.  I  missed  nothing  but  the  bag, 
which  contained  the  pamphlets  already  referred  to.  This  seems 
to  have  been  the  object  of  those  who  committed  the  act,  which, 
outrageous  and  fanatical  as  it  is,  has  not  been  in  my  opinion  per- 
petrated by  any  ignorant  or  infuriated  rabble.  .  .  .  However 
deeply  I  lament  the  occurrence,  I  do  not  see  how  I  could  have  pre- 
vented it.  It  is  evident  that  the  mail  would  have  received  the  same 
violence  had  the  obnoxious  papers  been  transmitted;  but  I  in- 
formed the  leading  men  of  both  political  parties  I  should  assume 
the  responsibility  of  keeping  back  the  incendiary  publications. 
All  seemed  satisfied,  and  yet  this  outrage  has  been  committed.  .  .  . 
My  mind  is  made  up  to  do  my  duty  to  the  Department,  but  it  is  not 
to  be  denied  that  the  whole  community  is  against  me,  though  the 
respectable  portion,  or  a  part  of  the  respectable  portion,  join  me 
in  reprobating  the  extravagance  that  has  been  committed."  '  Fol- 
lowing this  is  another  letter  in  which  the  Postmaster  states  that 
at  "a  meeting  of  citizens  of  all  political  parties,  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  insure  the  safety  of  the  mail,"  on  condition  that  he 
would  agree  not  to  issue  the  seditious  pamphlets  or  the  newspapers, 
under  the  titles  of  Emancipator  and  Human  Rights,  which  arrange- 
ment he  declares  was  indispensably  necessary. 

The  value  of  Hayne's  leadership  in  thus  arresting  what  might 

1  Courier,  Aug.  28,  1835. 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   INTOLERANCE   CROPPING   OUT      381 

have  easily  grown  into  a  grave  breach  between  the  general  govern- 
ment and  the  State,  is  attested  by  a  writer  in  O'NealPs  "Bench  and 
Bar,"  presumably  Bishop  Elliott,  who  states  that  at  a  meeting,  pre- 
sumably the  one  alluded  to  by  the  Postmaster,  an  effort  was  made 
"  under  the  auspices  of  John  Lyde  Wilson  and  other  unquiet 
spirits"  1  to  sanction  the  lawless  invasion  of  the  Post-office  by  a 
public  vote ;  while  it  was  declared  that  the  progress  of  the  mail  must 
be  arrested  until  it  could  be  duly  scrutinized  by  the  State  officials. 
The  writer  states  that  he  attended  the  meeting,  and  describes  the 
manner  in  which  Hayne  opposed  and  brought  this  to  nothing. 
Finding,  he  declared,  that  in  conversation  on  the  floor  he  could 
not  stop  the  growing  excitement,  but  that  rather  the  crowd  was 
growing  more  turbulent,  the  ex-Governor  mounted  a  bench,  and, 
'  concentrating  attention  upon  himself,  with  eye,  voice  and  general 
mien,  dominated  the  meeting  and  forced  upon  it  the  more  reason- 
able course.  As  to  the  possible  consequences,  had  he  failed  to 
control  the  meeting,  the  Postmaster,  himself,  writing  to  Charles 
Manigault,  under  date  of  October  15,  1835,  giyes  us  some  idea: 
"I  received  Galignani  and  was  quite  amused  with  the  account  of 
the  storming  of  the  Post-office — it  would  have  been  a  serious  affair 
had  the  People  attempted  to  carry  out  one  of  their  plans,  which 
was  to  take  charge  of  the  Post-office.  My  double  Barrel  was  all 
ready  and  I  should  assuredly  have  pulled  trigger  —  it  all  ended 
very  well ;  but  the  abolitionists  will,  I  fear,  go  on,  and  the  Union  will 
be  the  sacrifice.  I  deeply  regret  this,  for  I  am  a  confirmed  Union 
man.  I  lived  near  enough  to  the  Revolution  to  imbibe  all  the 
prejudices  and  weaknesses  of  Washington.  I  believe  that  liberty 
depends  upon  the  success  of  our  Constitution,  and  when  it  goes, 
God  help  us."  2 

1  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Vol.  2,  p.  29. 

1  Original  letter  of  Alfred  Huger  to  Charles  Manigault,  in  possession  of  Miss 
Ellen  H.  Jervey,  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 


ROBERT  Y.  HAYNE, 

SPEAKER  OF  THE  HOUSE,  ATTORNEY-GENERAL, U.S. SENATOR. 

GOVERNOR  OF  SO.  CA.,  FIRST   MAYOR  QF  CHARLESTON. 

HIS   LAST   PUBLIC  SERVICE 

WAS  HIS  EFFORT  TO  OPEN  DIRECT  RAILROAD  COMMUNICATION 

WITH  THE  VAST  INTERIOR  OF  OUR  CONTINENT. 

"NEXT  TO  THE  CHRISTIAN   RELIGION  I  KNOW  OF  NOTHING 

TO  BE  COMPARED  WITH  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  A  FREE, 
SOCIAL  AND  COMMERCIAL  INTERCOURSE,  IN    SOFTENING 

ASPERITIES;  REMOVING    PREJUDICES,  EXTENDING 
KNOWLEDGE   AND  PROMOTING  HUMAN    HAPPINESS',' «ko« 


#^,;:y^ 


* 


VALENTINE'S    BUST. 


BOOK    IV 

THE   APPEAL   TO   INTEREST 
CHAPTER  I 

THE  LOUISVILLE,  CINCINNATI  AND  CHARLESTON  RAILROAD. 
hayne's  DEEP  INTEREST  IN  IT  AS  A  MEANS  OF  PRESERVING 
THE   UNION.      CALHOUN'S    ATTEMPT    TO    DIVERT    THE    ROUTE 

While  no  longer  occupying  official  station,  Hayne  was  by  no 
means  free  from  duties,  in  their  nature  public,  as  appeared  in  the 
Post-office  episode,  finally  settled  satisfactorily,  although  it  be- 
came the  occasion  of  some  ill  feeling  between  Senator  King  of 
Georgia  and  Calhoun  a  little  later;  yet  this  greater  freedom  of 
action  enabled  him  the  more  clearly  to  recognize  the  future  power 
of  the  developing  West.  It  was  characteristic  of  the  man  that  he 
was  never  too  self-opinionated  to  gather  instruction  from  an  ad- 
versary or  to  refuse  to  entertain  a  view  because  he  had  at  one  time 
failed  to  appreciate  its  exact  application.  Prior  to  his  election 
to  the  United  States  Senate  in  1822,  it  has  been  suggested  that 
he  was  the  author  of  the  suggestion,  in  the  fall  of  182 1,  that  a 
railway,  to  be  operated  by  steam  power,  might  solve  the  difficul- 
ties of  transportation  in  South  Carolina,  and  that  the  line,  if 
laid  down,  should  be  from  Charleston  to  Augusta,  with  a  fork  to 
Columbia.  If  Hayne  had  been  as  active  in  perpetuating  the 
recollections  of  his  own  achievements  or  recalling  to  the  attention 
of  his  correspondents  and  audiences  the  suggestions  which  were 
to  the  credit  of  his  own  sagacity,  as  he  was  in  recording  the  wisdom 

383 


384  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

of  others,  more  would  be  known  of  the  man ;  but  in  this  forgetf ul- 
ness  of  self  he  greatly  resembled  Lowndes.  If  he  was  this  indi- 
vidual "H,"  there  were  not  lacking  reasons  why  he  should  have 
failed  to  press  the  subject  more  actively  at  that  time.  First,  the 
nomination  of  Lowndes  for  the  Presidency,  at  the  very  session  of  the 
Legislature,  to  whose  attention  the  writer  had  called  the  patent 
railway.  Second,  the  engrossing  duties  imposed  upon  him  (Hayne) 
as  chief  legal  adviser  and  general  superintendent  of  police  power 
during  the  investigation  of  the  Denmark  Vesey  insurrection; 
and  lastly,  his  own  nomination  for  and  election  to  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  at  a  time  when  the  question  of  the  tariff  dwarfed 
every  other  issue.  The  patent  railway  had  been  exhibited  in 
Charleston  in  the  early  part  of  1822 ; 1  but  for  nearly  four  years  the 
idea  of  transportation  by  railroads  made  little  headway.  In  the 
early  part  of  1825  there  is  a  complaining  note  concerning  the 
neglect  of  this  means  of  transportation,2  but  hardly  any  sustained 
effort  along  this  line  prior  to  1827.  Under  the  leadership  of  Aiken 
and  Horry,  and  with  the  assistance  of  others,  whose  fame  Hayne's 
subsequent  speeches  preserved,  the  railroad  had  advanced  with 
great  energy  until,  by  the  death  of  Elias  Horry  in  1834,  the  pro- 
jected march  to  the  West  was  halted.  For  narrow,  local  reasons 
Columbia  opposed  the  project,  and  in  fact  in  scarcely  any  quar- 
ter outside  of  Charleston  did  it  receive  any  substantial  support. 
For  this,  Charleston's  business  men  and  property  holders  were  not 
entirely  free  from  blame.  The  road  was  refused  access  to  the  water 
front,  and  the  merchants  were  accused  of  burdening  the  produce, 
brought  in  with  such  unnecessary  charges  as  to  drive  cotton  to 
Savannah.  In  addition,  while  the  general  government  was  most 
unreasonable  in  behavior  with  regard  to  the  matter  of  the  carriage 
of  the  mail,  a  little  more  tact  on  the  part  of  the  railroad  management 

1  Phillips,  "History  of  Transportation  in  the  Eastern  Cotton  Belt,"  p.  136. 
8  City  Gazette,  April  8,  1825. 


THE   WESTERN    ROAD  385 

might  have  adjusted  the  matter,  without  the  loss  of  $10,000  a  year, 
which  the  contract  brought  in.  Very  probably  the  meeting  in 
Cincinnati  in  the  fall  of  1835,  which  started  active  interest  in  the 
great  Western  Railroad  scheme  with  which  South  Carolina  was 
occupied  from  this  time  for  some  five  years  or  more,  owed  its  origin 
to  the  investigations  and  reports  of  Elias  Horry,  president  of  the 
Charleston  and  Hamburg  Railroad,  before  brought  to  notice  in 
1833  and  1834.  Be  that  as  it  may,  in  October,  1835,  a  lengthy 
and  well-thought-out  statement  regarding  the  construction  of  a 
railroad  between  Charleston  and  Cincinnati  was  laid  before  the 
Charleston  public,  as  emanating  from  a  group  of  Western  men  of 
prominence,  at  the  head  of  whom  stood  General  William  H.  Harri- 
son,1 a  senator  from  Indiana,  during  a  part  of  the  time  of  Hayne's 
service  in  the  Senate.  The  distance  was  estimated  to  be  609  miles, 
viz.,  80  miles  from  Cincinnati  to  Lexington,  Kentucky;  thence  to 
Cumberland  Gap,  Tennessee,  130  miles;  thence  to  the  French  Broad 
River,  North  Carolina,  54 miles;  thence  to  Columbia,  South  Caro- 
lina, 215  miles;  thence  to  Charleston,  130  miles.  The  blending  of 
the  practical  and  the  sentimental  in  the  appeal  with  which  these 
Western  men  concluded  their  call  for  a  general  movement  in  behalf 
of  the  undertaking  was  well  calculated  to  stir  the  interest  of 
many  South  Carolinians,  and  Hayne  especially.  "In  conclusion," 
declared  the  framers,  "we  would  address  ourselves  to  South 
Carolina,  the  oldest  Southern  member  of  the  original  thirteen, 
and  to  Kentucky  the  first  born  of  the  Union,  and  ask  them  whether 
their  relative  rank  and  seniority  do  not  impose  on  them  the  duty 
of  promptly  moving  in  this  national  enterprise.  .  .  .  The  people 
of  those  States,  from  their  very  origin,  have  been  distinguished 
for  traits  of  character  which,  in  the  days  of  external  dangers, 
were  most  precious  to  their  brethren,  and  should  the  same  energies 
of  feeling  and  action  now  be  thrown  into  the  arts  and  enterprises  of 

1  Charleston  Courier,  Oct.  8,  1835. 

2C 


386  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

peace,  results  must  be  obtained  at  once  honorable  to  themselves  and 
beneficial  to  the  Union."  With  this  call  ringing  in  his  ears,  Hayne 
was  deaf  to  Calhoun's  suggestion  for  sectional  action,  with  regard 
to  the  Abolitionists.  He  had  tried  argument  and  had  tried  force, 
and  upon  him,  in  the  last,  had  been  imposed  the  heaviest  weight 
of  responsibility.  He  desired  no  more  arraying  of  State  against 
Nation,  section  against  section.  He  knew  the  Force  Bill  had  not 
been  repealed,  and  would  not  be,  and  he  must  have  remembered  that 
Calhoun  had  declared  that  either  the  Force  Bill  or  the  political 
connection  must  yield.  The  compromise  concerning  the  tariff 
was  more  to  him  than  the  theory  of  nullification.  He  believed  the 
Union  to  be  in  danger.  The  appeal  to  reason  had  produced  no 
result ;  the  appeal  to  force  had  indeed  been  successful ;  but  evidence 
was  not  lacking  that  the  victory  had  been  won  at  some  cost,  and  at 
any  moment  the  battle  might  be  on  again,  with  no  further  chances 
for  a  compromise.  Here,  now,  was  presented  the  opportunity  for  an 
appeal  to  interest.  With  all  the  ardor  which  had  characterized  him 
in  his  senatorial  career,  he  flung  himself  into  this  industrial  enter- 
prise; and  his  associates,  recognizing  his  worth,  placed  him  at 
their  head,  and  imposed  upon  him  the  labor  and  responsibility, 
as  had  been  the  case  in  the  Senate  from  1824  to  1832  in  the  long 
fight  against  the  tariff.  On  November  5,  1835,  he  submitted  the 
report  of  the  committee  appointed  to  examine  into  the  projected  road 
to  Cincinnati,  of  which  some  extracts  give  an  idea.  It  was  a  char- 
acteristic of  Hayne  to  remember  and  comment  upon  the  achieve- 
ments of  others;  but  never  his  own.  Calhoun's  habit  of  calling 
attention  to  former  suggestions,  the  wisdom  of  which  time  seemed 
to  have  established,  helps  not  infrequently  to  a  better  conception  of 
some  historical  facts.  For  instance,  the  assumption  that  it  was 
about  this  time  that  Calhoun  urged  upon  Hayne  the  advisability 
of  calling  a  Southern  convention  concerning  Abolitionistic  activity, 
is  not  only  borne  out  by  the  fact  that  the  Mercury,  devoted  to  Cal- 


THE  WESTERN   ROAD  387 

houn,  contained  article  after  article  of  that  nature ;  but  also  because 
three  years  later,  in  replying  to  some  communication  of  Hayne  con- 
cerning the  Abolitionists,  Calhoun  reminds  him  that  he,  Calhoun, 
advised  action;  but  failed  to  obtain  his  cooperation.  This  "I 
told  you  so"  phrase,  however,  was  not  Hayne' s  habit,  and  hence, 
after  being  informed  of  the  deep  interest  taken  by  the  citizens  of 
Charleston  in  the  projected  road,  we  are  not  surprised  to  note  the 
information  from  him  that  "the  late  Stephen  Elliott  seven  years  ago 
pointed  out  through  the  columns  of  the  Southern  Review  the  facility 
with  which  the  commerce  of  the  West  could  be  brought  to  Charleston 
by  a  railroad  (connecting  the  valleys  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi 
with  the  Atlantic  Ocean) ,  by  which,  in  six  days,  commerce  might  be 
taken  from  the  confluence  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  to  this 
city,  and  in  five  days  a  return  cargo  be  delivered  at  the  same  point."  * 
Allusion  also  is  made  to  valuable  and  thoughtful  suggestions  by 
Joel  R.  Poinsett,  Charles  Edmondston  and  Elias  Horry;  but  no 
allusion  to  the  very  extraordinary  suggestion  of  "H"  in  1821,  that 
by  steam  power  a  road  might  be  operated  from  Charleston  to 
Augusta,  with  a  fork  to  Columbia,  although  there  is  a  development 
of  the  very  idea — a  habit  somewhat  peculiar  to  Hayne  and  noticeable 
in  his  speeches  —  with  regard  to  ideas  particularly  attractive  to 
him.  "H"  had  suggested,  in  182 1,  the  possibility  of  effecting  by 
steam  power  what  might  be  beyond  horse  power;  and  Hayne  says 
in  this  report  in  1835,  "The  application  of  the  mighty  power  of 
steam  to  machinery  has  given  an  impulse  to  our  whole  country, 
which  has  impressed  the  public  mind  with  a  deep  and  settled  con- 
viction that  to  American  skill,  enterprise  and  perseverance  nothing 
in  the  way  of  improvement  is  impossible."  The  route,  he  thought, 
could  only  be  determined  after  careful  examination;  but  this 
done,  the  advantage  to  the  whole  country  would  be  incalculable. 
"A  railroad  which  shall  enable  the  citizens  of  Charleston  and 

1  Charleston  Courier,  Nov.  5,  1835. 


388  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Cincinnati,  of  Lexington  and  Louisville,  to  visit  each  other,  and 
return  home  in  the  course  of  a  few  days,  would  multiply  the  cords 
of  sympathy,  by  which  men's  hearts  are  united,  and  from  which 
spring  all  the  gentle  charities  of  life.  The  natural  effect  of  all  this  in 
strengthening  the  bonds  of  our  political  union  will  be  felt  by  every 
one  who  reflects  on  the  influence  of  social  intercourse  in  smoothen- 
ing  asperities,  removing  prejudices  and  binding  us  together  by  those 
social  ties  which  are  among  the  strongest  bonds  of  society.  In  one 
point  of  view,  these  considerations  assume  an  importance  to  which 
too  much  weight  cannot  possibly  be  given.  We  allude  to  the  effect 
which  such  a  connection  must  have  upon  the  peculiar  institution  of 
the  South.  Slavery  as  it  now  exists  in  the  Southern  States,  which 
we  all  feel  and  know  to  be  essential  to  the  prosperity  and  welfare,  — 
nay,  to  the  very  existence  of  these  States,  —  is  so  little  understood 
in  other  portions  of  the  Union  that  it  has  lately  been  assailed  in  a 
spirit  which  threatens,  unless  speedily  arrested,  to  lead  eventually 
to  the  destruction  of  the  Union,  and  all  the  evils  which  must  attend 
so  lamentable  an  occurrence.  We  believe  that  an  establishment  of 
such  an  intercourse  with  the  Western  States,  as  is  now  proposed, 
would  have  a  powerful  tendency  to  avert  this  dire  calamity." 
Continuing,  the  report  indicated  how  earnestly  New  York,  Boston, 
Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  were  moving  for  what  was  offered  to 
Charleston,  and  how  "impossible  it  was  to  remain  stationary  when 
all  others  were  pressing  on."  And  that  "to  remain  inactive  is  to 
lose  the  prize."  The  result  of  the  report  was  an  appropriation  of 
$5000  for  an  immediate  survey,  and  the  appointment  of  a  commit- 
tee of  Correspondence,  with  Hayne  as  its  head.  At  Columbia, 
Abraham  Blanding,  Wade  Hampton,  Senator  Preston  and  others 
had  taken  hold  of  the  project,  Preston  in  an  eloquent  speech  having 
criticised  Columbia  severely  for  failing  to  assist  the  road  in  the 
past  from  Charleston  to  Columbia ;  and,  upon  declining  the  proposal 
of  the  Courier  that  a  vacancy  should  be  made  for  him  in  the  Charles- 


THE   WESTERN   ROAD  389 

ton  delegation  to  the  Legislature,  Hayne  was  enabled  to  state: 
"After  a  free  interchange  of  opinions  between  the  Columbia  and 
Charleston  committee,  it  has  been  determined  that  application  shall 
be  made  to  the  Legislatures  of  the  several  States  interested,  for 
charters  to  be  granted  to  a  joint  committee,  for  which  subscriptions 
will  be  opened  as  soon  as  the  necessary  surveys  and  estimates  can 
be  made.',  He  also  stated  that  Colonel  Blanding  had  consented 
to  take  charge  of  the  petitions  to  the  Legislatures  of  Tennessee, 
Kentucky  and  North  Carolina,  where,  on  account  of  his  high 
character  and  extensive  acquaintance,  he  could  not  fail  to  obtain 
a  favorable  consideration.1  So  far,  all  are  moving  together; 
but  on  November  11  there  appears  in  the  Mercury  a  letter  from 
Calhoun  to  J.  S.  Williams,  one  of  the  most  influential  of  the  Western 
movers.  It  is  dated  July,  1835.  After  expressing  his  pleasure 
at  the  proposed  connection  between  the  South  Atlantic  and  the 
West,  "  an  object  which  I  have  long  considered  the  most  important 
in  the  whole  range  of  internal  improvements,"  he  claims  to  have 
made  arrangements  at  Charleston  in  the  spring  of  that  very  year 
"to  give  the  first  impulse  from  that  point ";  that  he  had  agreed  to 
prepare  a  memorial  in  the  course  of  the  summer ;  but  not  obtaining 
the  requisite  information  from  the  report  of  Colonel  Long,  "the 
deep  excitement  of  the  South  in  consequence  of  the  interference  of 
a  certain  description  of  persons  at  the  North  with  our  domestic 
institutions,  rendering  it  impossible  at  that  time  to  attract  public 
attention  in  this  quarter  to  the  great  object  in  contemplation, 
induced  me  to  postpone  any  movement."  From  this  he  elaborates 
what  has  been  put  forward  in  the  Cincinnati  pamphlet  and  Hayne's 
report,  declaring  that  "the  only  question  is  the  line  of  route." 
Then  he  endeavors  to  show  that  a  different  route  is  much  better. 
His  argument  is  that:  "The  river  (the  Tennessee)  has  broken  or 
turned  the  whole  Alleghany  chain  to  the  Southwest,  except  an  incon- 

1  Charleston  Courier,  Nov.  9,  1835. 


39©  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

siderable  ridge  of  a  few  hundred  feet  in  height,  which  has  resisted  it. 
...  In  consequence,  there  is  no  impediment  to  the  construction  of 
a  railroad  from  Charleston  to  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation  on 
the  Tennessee."  Having  called  the  attention  of  his  correspondent 
to  the  fact  that  beyond  the  railroad  from  Charleston  to  Augusta, 
136  miles  completed,  there  was  one  under  way,  thence  to  Athens, 
Georgia,  about  100  miles,  which  he  thinks  would  probably  be 
completed  in  a  year  or  two,  he  estimates  the  distance  as  follows, 
"  From  Athens  to  the  valley  of  the  Tennessee  or  eastern  termination 
of  the  Decatur  Railroad  and  to  Muscle  Shoals,  200  or  250  miles." 
And  ending  all  calculations  and  estimates  some  200  or  300  miles 
short  of  where  the  projectors'  interests  were  mainly  centred,  he 
blandly  observes :  "  From  the  bend  of  the  Tennessee  you  can  best 
determine  the  difficulties.  At  all  events,  when  the  railroad  reaches 
the  Tennessee,  the  connections  of  the  South  with  the  whole  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley  will  be  complete."  After  giving  the  cheerful  in- 
formation, that  even  if  connection  by  rail  is  made  with  Cincinnati, 
much  of  the  heavy  transportation  would  be  made  by  steamboat, 
he  closes  with  the  declaration  that  as  a  railroad  is  projected  from 
the  bend  of  the  Tennessee  to  Memphis,  consequently  the  movement 
of  population  and  industry  is  towards  Arkansas  and  will  make  the 
region  described  the  industrial  centre  of  the  country.  Under  date 
of  October  17,  he  writes  again,  acknowledging  receipt  of  pamphlets, 
and  noting:  "The  Meeting  takes  a  different  view  of  the  route 
from  the  one  which  I  had  suggested  in  my  letter  to  you.  It  certainly 
has  the  advantage  of  being  far  more  direct  and  of  passing  through 
a  large  tract  of  interesting  country,  which  now  is  almost  shut  out 
from  Market.  .  .  .  The  road  would  pass  through  the  entire 
length  of  this  State,  say  250  miles,  nearly  half  of  the  entire  distance, 
and  I  think  I  may  say  with  confidence  that  if  Kentucky,  Tennessee 
and  North  Carolina,  through  which  it  would  pass,  and  which  have  a 
deep  interest  in  its  execution,  will  execute  the  portion  which  may 


THE   WESTERN   ROAD  391 

be  within  their  respective  limits,  South  Carolina  will  meet  our 
Western  brethren  on  her  Northern  and  Western  limits  with  a  well- 
executed  railroad  to  her  commercial  capital.  ..."  While  if  both 
prove  practicable,  —  he  sees  no  reason  why  one  should  supersede  the 
other,  — he  seems  fully  alive  to  the  danger  to  "the  grand  design  of 
uniting  the  two  sections,"  which  may  arise  through  "rivalry  and 
conflict,"  against  which  he  inveighs.1  This  second  letter  does  not 
seem,  however,  to  have  been  given  to  the  press,  while  the  first  was, 
as  we  see,  nigh  a  month  after  the  penning  of  the  second.  As  in 
some  measure  a  counterpoise  to  Calhoun's  arguments  for  a  change 
in  the  route,  a  letter  from  Judge  O'Neall  to  Hayne  was  a  little  later 
made  public,  in  which  this  ornament  of  Carolina's  great  bench 
indorsed  most  unreservedly  the  proposed  route  through  the  centre 
of  the  State,  expressing  incidentally  his  great  pleasure  to  have  it 
again  in  his  power  to  think  and  cooperate  with  Hayne  in  a  great 
public  matter.  After  many  valuable  and  practical  suggestions  to 
bring  all  in  to  the  work  which  he  believes  "can  be  constructed  by 
South  Carolina  alone,"  he  concludes  with  the  declaration:  "There 
is  no  scheme  of  internal  improvement  that  has  ever  so  much  inter- 
ested me,  and  for  which  I  should  be  ready  to  make  so  many  sacri- 
fices. For  if  it  succeeds,  South  Carolina  will  be  prosperous  beyond 
all  former  calculations,  and  the  Union  of  the  States  will  be  as  lasting 
as  the  rocks  and  mountains  which  will  be  passed  and  overcome 
by  the  contemplated  road."  2  On  the  same  day  as  this  letter,  ap- 
pears the  report  of  Colonel  Gadsden,  the  engineer  engaged  by  the 
Charleston  committee,  that  from  actual  examination  of  the  gaps  of 
the  Saluda  Mountain,  the  railroad  may  be  made  to  cross  the  chain 
with  more  facility  than  was  first  imagined.3  Governor  McDuffie 
gives  the  scheme  some  encouragement  in  his  Message  to  the 
Legislature,  and  by  that  body  R.  Y.  Hayne,  P.  Noble,  Thomas 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  pp.  346-347. 

2  Charleston  Courier,  Nov.  26,  1835.  3  Ibid.,  Nov.  26,  1835. 


392  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Smith,  A.  Blanding  and  C.  Edmondston  are  appointed  com- 
missioners. Calhoun  had,  however,  been  actively  engaged  in 
correspondence  with  the  two  Georgia  congressmen,  Clayton  and 
Dawson,  and  also  Colonel  F.  Carter,  to  whom  he  intimated  that 
he  would  use  his  influence  with  Ker  Boyce  and  Hamilton  in  be- 
half of  the  Georgia  enterprise; *  and  at  Cincinnati,  where  a  great 
meeting  was  held  at  the  close  of  the  year,  mention  is  made  of  the 
receipt  of  letters  from  Calhoun,  Hayne,  Governor  Cannon  of 
Tennessee  and  the  Georgia  Railroad  Company. 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  pp.  349-352. 


CHAPTER    II 

THE  POLITICAL  POSSIBILITIES  OP  THE  GREAT  WESTERN  RAILROAD 
IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  ABOLITION  AGITATION.  THE  REVOLT  OF 
H.  L.  PINCKNEY  FROM  THE  DOMINATION  OF  CALHOUN  OVER 
THE  SOUTH  CAROLINA  DELEGATION  IN  CONGRESS.  THE 
KNOXVILLE     CONVENTION.      HAYNE   MADE   PRESIDENT 

The  expression  used  by  Hayne  in  his  report  concerning  the 
Western  Railroad,  "  Slavery  as  it  now  exists  in  the  Southern  States, 
which  we  all  feel  and  know  to  be  essential  to  the  prosperity  and 
welfare,  nay,  to  the  very  existence  of  these  States,"  represented 
the  views  of  some  who  had  imperceptibly  changed  with  the  times. 
It  does  not  seem  to  have  been  an  absolutely  prevailing  view  in 
South  Carolina  in  Hayne's  youth,  and  it  was  apparently  against 
just  such  a  view  that  D.  E.  Huger,  K.  L.  Simons  and  Hayne  had 
contended  in  the  South  Carolina  Legislature  in  1818,  in  opposition 
to  McDuffie,  Lance  and  Witherspoon,  when  the  debate  had  been 
characterized  as  one  which  had  elicited  a  greater  degree  of  elo- 
quence than  had  been  heard  in  that  body  for  years.  It  is  true, 
that  in  the  debate  on  the  Panama  mission,  in  the  United  States 
Senate  in  1826,  Hayne  had  taken  a  position  not  at  all  opposed  to 
his  attitude  in  this  report  of  1835;  yet,  in  1827,  when  he  had  had 
an  occasion  to  go  most  thoroughly  into  the  subject,  he  had  declared 
unequivocally  that  time  would  settle  the  matter,  and  that  slave 
labor  must  give  way  and  cease  to  be  profitable  when  it  came  into 
competition  with  free  labor.  As  Governor  in  1833,  he  had  called 
attention  to  the  abuses  of  the  system,  as  Bennett  and  Lyde  Wilson 

393 


^ 


394  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

had  done  in  their  time:  but  he  could  not  fail  to  be  somewhat 
affected  by  that  growing  belief  in  the  institution  of  slavery,  which 
the  successful  outcome  of  the  nullification  struggle  had  unques- 
tionably strengthened.  Yet  Hayne's  declarations  concerning 
slavery,  even  when  supporting  the  system,  are  always  qualified. 
At  no  time,  nor  by  any  expression,  does  he  ever  commit  himself  to 
the  belief  in  such  a  condition  as  his  two  great  contemporaries, 
Calhoun  and  McDuffie,  unhesitatingly  do.  In  this  very  year, 
Governor  McDuffie  took  occasion  to  state  in  his  Message  to  the 
Legislature,  "No  human  institution,  in  my  opinion,  is  more  mani- 
festly consistent  with  the  will  of  God  than  domestic  slavery,  and 
no  one  of  his  ordinances  is  written  in  more  legible  characters  than 
that  which  consigns  the  African  race  to  this  condition,  as  more 
conducive  to  their  own  happiness  than  any  other  to  which  they  are 
susceptible."  *  With  this  sentiment  growing  in  the  South,  and 
the  Abolition  sentiment  increasing  in  the  North,  to  a  man  of  Hayne's 
practical  mind  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  when  the  clash  would 
come.  The  growing  divergence  in  opinion  must  be  checked,  if 
the  Union  was  to  be  preserved.  Argument  had  been  tried,  and 
had  proven  useless.  The  sections  were  straining  apart.  They 
must  be  knit  together  by  a  bond  of  interest  so  strong  as  to  stand 
the  tugs  of  differing  views,  while  time  adjusted  the  great  question 
to  the  industrial  growth  of  the  future.  This  was  why  the  Western 
Railroad  meant  so  much  to  Hayne.  Calhoun's  view  of  the  railroad 
question,  apparently,  was  somewhat  different.  In  the  first  place, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  he  ever  conceived  of  transportation  by  rail, 
serving  more  than  as  an  adjunct  to  water  transportation,  and  the  lim- 
itations of  his  understanding  of  the  subject  furnish  some  excuse  for 
his  determined  opposition  to  the  plans  of  those  better  equipped  to 
grapple  with  the  question,  than  time  has  indicated  he  was.  He 
had  no  objection  to  a  connection  with  the  Northwest,  and  would 

1  Mercury,  Nov.  27,  1835. 


PRESIDENT   OF   THE   KNOXVILLE   CONVENTION       395 

have  been  glad  to  see  it  effected,  for  his  love  of  the  Union  was  deep 
and  profound;  but  for  all  that,  it  is  probable  that  he  contemplated 
a  division  as  possible  in  the  future,  and  his  aim  seems  to  have  been 
more  to  connect  the  South  more  closely  than  to  draw  together 
the  North  and  South  as  one. 

Abraham  Blanding  had  meanwhile  attended  the  convenings  of 
the  Legislatures  of  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee,  which  had  re- 
sponded favorably,  and  after  a  visit  to  Cincinnati,  where  he  was 
received  with  demonstrations  of  great  interest,  he  proceeded  to 
Kentucky.  Here  the  first  open  obstruction  to  the  great  enter- 
prise appeared;  for  the  conditions  under  which  the  Legislature 
of  Kentucky  granted  a  charter  to  the  road  were  almost  prohibitive. 
First,  in  addition  to  the  line  between  Cincinnati  and  Lexington, 
provision  must  be  made  for  lines  to  Louisville  and  Mayesville; 
second,  the  Legislature  retained  the  right  to  buy  out  the  road  after 
a  certain  period ;  third,  Kentucky  must  have  six  out  of  the  twenty- 
four  directors,  leaving  three  each  for  the  other  four  States.  But 
not  content  with  these  preposterous  conditions,  an  attempt  was 
also  made  to  strike  out  the  provision  for  any  road  to  Cincinnati. 
This,  however,  failed.1  The  only  possible  excuse  for  this  behavior 
of  the  legislators  of  Kentucky  lay  in  the  fact  that  they  may  have 
suspected  that  part  of  the  interest  of  the  States  north  of  the  Ohio 
River  was  in  the  opportunity  offered  to  boom  Harrison  for  the 
Presidency,  which  the  movement  might  afford.  Certain  it  is,  that 
in  Blanding,  Harrison  had  an  advocate.  Indeed,  if  we  measure  the 
interest  of  Indiana  and  Ohio  as  evinced  by  words  and  deeds,  the 
contrast  is  somewhat  astonishing.  On  February  8,  1836,  the  Leg- 
islature of  Indiana  passed  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions, 
"Whereas  the  Governor  of  this  State,  at  the  present  session,  laid 
before  the  Legislature  the  proceedings  of  a  public  meeting,  held 
at  Cincinnati  in  August  last,  on  the  subject  of  a  railroad  from  the 

1  Charleston  Courier,  Feb.  17,  1836. 


396  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

banks  of  the  Ohio  River  to  the  tidewaters  of  the  Carolinas  and 
Georgia;  and  also  the  proceedings  of  the  chamber  of  commerce 
of  Charleston,  held  in  October  subsequent,  with  other  documents; 
and  whereas  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  said  work  is  insepa- 
rably connected  with  the  commercial,  political  and  social  interests 
of  Indiana,  as  well  as  the  more  enlarged  and  delicate  interests  of 
the  Union:  Resolved  that  the  General  Assembly  view  with  the 
liveliest  interest  the  project."  For  this  interest  they  assigned 
four  separate  reasons,  concluding  with  a  fifth  which  reechoes  the 
sentiments  of  Hayne :  "  Resolved  that  it  is  in  view,  however,  of  its 
effects  upon  the  social  and  political  condition  of  our  common  coun- 
try, that  they  regard  it  as  most  important ;  that  they  look  upon  it 
as  a  measure  which  more  than  any  other  in  this  present  age  will 
tend  by  its  operations  upon  the  trade  and  intercourse  of  remote 
and  comparatively  alienated  sections  of  this  confederacy  to  har- 
monize the  jarring  elements  of  now  discordant  and  conflicting  in- 
terests, feelings  and  habits ;  that  they  look  upon  it  as  an  iron  chain, 
which  will  evidently  tend  to  connect  with  new  ties  this  glorious 
Union,  which  is  the  basis  of  our  common  prosperity  and  of  well-regu- 
lated liberty."  l  If  Indiana  ever  did  anything  in  the  smallest  de- 
gree for  the  road,  the  record  does  not  seem  to  have  been  preserved. 
In  the  same  year,  at  Washington,  a  matter  of  considerable  im- 
portance came  up,  and  as  it  developed  seemed  pregnant  with  great 
political  possibilities,  as  far  as  South  Carolina  politics  were  con- 
cerned. This  was  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  or  the  revolt 
of  Calhoun's  ablest  henchman.  For  ten  years  H.  L.  Pinckney 
had  supported  Calhoun,  with  voice  and  pen  and  faith  so  clinging 
as  to  injure  his  own  reputation  for  consistency,  in  fact  to  such  a  de- 
gree as  almost  to  destroy  it.  He  had  attacked  or  supported  Jackson, 
as  the  exigencies  of  Calhoun's  political  measures  had  required  that 
the  former  should  be  magnified  or  belittled,  and  he  had  warred 

1  Charleston  Courier,  April  8,  1836. 


PRESIDENT   OF  THE   KNOXVILLE   CONVENTION         397 

most  relentlessly  against  all  who  opposed  in  the  slightest  the  views 
of  his  great  leader.  When  Calhoun  was  opposed  to  Crawford, 
Pinckney  had  echoed  his  chief's  declarations  against  the  extreme 
State  Rights  supporters  of  the  Georgian,  with  a  fluency  and  force 
and  a  picturesqueness  of  phrase  far  beyond  the  power  of  Calhoun. 
When  Calhoun  took  up  the  doctrine  of  nullification,  Pinckney 
championed  the  policy  without  reserve.  No  man  in  Charleston 
was  so  intensely  hated  by  the  Unionists  as  H.  L.  Pinckney;  but 
he  was  a  power  in  the  cijy;  and  when  in  1830,  at  the  outset  of  the  < 
struggle  over  nullification,  the  Unionists  in  Charleston  swept 
almost  everything  before  them,  they  could  not  prevent  the  election 
of  Pinckney  to  the  Legislature,  or  secure  the  return  of  their  own 
leader,  Petigru,  between  whom  and  Pinckney  there  existed  a 
hatred  almost  cordial  in  its  stimulating  influence.  And  in  the 
hour  of  their  exultation,  Pinckney  called  these  facts  to  the  recollec- 
tion of  the  Unionists.  In  recognition  of  his  services,  the  nullifiers, 
unable  to  nullify  in  1830,  made  Pinckney  Speaker  of  the  South 
Carolina  House  of  Representatives,  and,  in  1832,  Drayton  no  longer 
being  a  possibility,  Pinckney  succeeded  him  in  Congress.  Too 
able  and  ambitious  to  be  content  with  obscurity,  having  won  a 
second  election  over  Alfred  Huger  in  1834,  with  McDuffie's  aban- 
donment of  Congress  to  become  Governor,  no  one  was  left  in  the 
congressional  delegation  Pinckney's  equal,  as  speaker  or  legislator, 
and  he,  not  unnaturally,  strode  to  the  front.  In  1835,  as  has  been 
shown,  the  South,  and  particularly  Charleston,  had  been  greatly 
stirred  by  publications  sent  through  the  mails.  Action  had  been 
demanded,  and  in  1836  the  administration  attempted  to  stop  the 
distribution  of  such  matter.  But  upon  its  appearance,  Calhoun 
promptly  opposed  the  bill,  for  which  he  was  roundly  denounced 
by  Senator  King  of  Georgia,  who  accused  him  of  trying  to  prevent 
the  administration  from  protecting  the  South  simply  on  account  of 
his  hostility  to  the  administration.     This  Calhoun  denied,  declaring 


398  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

that  the  administration  bill  affected  State  Rights,  as  the  States 
should  decide  what  should  or  should  not  be  distributed  through 
their  borders.  Yet  Calhoun  writes  to  Duff  Green  just  about  this 
time:  "The  Senate,  I  fear,  is  subdued.  I  never  saw  so  little  spirit 
in  the  body.  There  has,  however,  sprung  up  a  fine  spirit  in  the 
House  among  the  young  men  from  the  South  and  West.  .  .  . 
Among  this  band,  Wise  has  taken  a  noble  stand.  He  has  made  the 
most  effective  speech  ever  delivered  against  the  administration."  * 
But  in  the  episode,  Wise  does  not  seem  reajly  to  have  accomplished 
as  much  as  Pinckney.  The  incident,  from  which  the  discussion 
arose,  was  precipitated  in  the  following  way :  John  Quincy  Adams 
had  introduced  a  petition  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, with  regard  to  which  he  declared  a  report  could  be  offered 
which  would  satisfy  the  people  of  the  North  that  Congress  had 
no  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.2  Owen, 
thereupon,  moved  a  resolution  that  any  petition  on  the  subject 
of  the  abolition  of  slavery  ought  to  be  laid  on  the  table  without 
debate.  This,  Glascock  desired  to  amend  with  a  declaration  that 
any  agitation  was  calculated  to  disturb  the  compromises  of  the 
Constitution,  for  which  Wise  offered  a  substitute,  in  effect  declaring 
that  there  was  no  power  to  legislate,  and  an  attempt  would  be  dan- 
gerous. Into  this  tangle  Pinckney  interposed  with  a  motion  that 
all  memorials,  together  with  the  resolutions,  amendments  and  sub- 
stitutes referring  thereto  be  intrusted  to  a  select  committee,  with 
instructions  to  report  "that  Congress  has  no  authority  to  meddle 
with  slavery  in  any  of  the  States ;  that  Congress  ought  not  to  meddle 
with  it  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  to  assign  such  reasons  as 
would  allay  excitement,  preserve  the  just  rights  of  the  slave-holding 
States  and  establish  harmony  and  tranquillity  among  the  sections 
of  the  Union."  3    Later,  evidently,  there  was  added  to  this  a  section 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  356.  2  Courier,  Feb.  2,  1836. 

3  McMaster,  "History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  6,  p.  295. 


PRESIDENT   OF   THE   KNOXVILLE   CONVENTION         399 

declaring  "that  all  petitions  hereafter  with  regard  to  slavery  be 
laid  on  the  table."  *  But  this  attempt  to  mollify  Wise  pleased 
neither  Adams  nor  Wise,  and  the  latter,  with  his  usual  intolerance, 
denounced  Pinckney  as  a  deserter.  But  Pinckney  had  partici- 
pated in  too  many  stormy  gatherings  to  be  very  profoundly  per- 
turbed by  the  frantic  vituperation  of  a  man  of  Wise's  caliber, 
and  in  the  light  of  the  vote  the  silent  contempt  with  which  he 
received  it  was  appropriate.  More  disturbing  than  Wise,  the 
assaults  of  the  Telegraph  and  his  own  home  paper,  the  Mercury, 
failed  to  move  him,  and,  in  addition  to  the  overwhelming  majority 
with  which  the  House  sustained  him,  he  carried  with  him  two 
other  congressmen  from  South  Carolina,  Rogers  and  Manning, 
the  latter  of  whom  not  only  voted  with  him,  but  sustained  his 
position  with  an  able  speech.  The  resolution  declaring  that  Con- 
gress had  no  power  to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the  States  was 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  182  to  9;  that  which  declared  that  Congress 
ought  not  to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
passed  by  a  vote  of  132  to  45;  while  the  one  reciting  that  all  pe- 
titions hereafter  with  regard  to  slavery  be  laid  on  the  table,  went 
through  by  117  to  68. 2  The  last  was  what  excited  Adams;  but 
it  brought  Pinckney  so  close  to  the  position  of  Calhoun  that  it  is 
difficult  to  understand  wherein  his  great  offence  lay.  He  was 
charged,  however,  with  inclining  to  Van  Buren,  an  accusation 
which,  it  is  instructive  to  note,  was  levelled  by  one  of  his  severest 
critics,  and  one  of  Calhoun's  most  intimate  associates,  against  Cal- 
houn himself,  in  the  following  year.  On  the  floor  of  Congress, 
Pinckney's  triumph  was  complete;  but  it  was  at  home,  in  the  re- 
tention of  his  seat,  that  the  really  serious  struggle  would  come. 
In  daring  to  differ  with  Calhoun,  he  had  bearded  "the  lion  in  his 
den,  the  Douglas  in  his  Hall,"  and  he  would  have  to  reckon  with 
those  who  upheld  Calhoun.     Against  him  would  be  his  quondam 

1  Courier,  March  18,  1836.  2  Ibid.,  June  1,  1836. 


400  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

associate  of  other  days,  that  stalwart  nullifier,  General  James 
Hamilton,  who,  with  the  additional  prestige  which  clothed  one  who 
had  been  Governor,  could  fairly  claim  to  have  divided  with  him 
the  leadership  of  the  nullification  struggle  in  the  city  of  Charleston. 
Nor  could  he  count  on  Hayne's  support ;  for  it  must  be  admitted 
that  in  the  last  of  his  resolutions  he  had  indirectly  condemned  the 
introduction  of  the  first  two,  and  somewhat  reduced  the  question 
to  one  within  the  power  of  Congress  to  pass  upon,  a  position  the 
South  did  not  accept.  To  cast  an  additional  damper  on  his  pros- 
pects, Manning,  the  ablest  of  the  Unionist  leaders  at  that  time 
in  the  interior  of  State  who  had  supported  him  with  voice  and  vote, 
suddenly  died.  Nothing  daunted,  however,  by  the  odds,  Pinckney 
issued  his  election  address  and  opened  the  struggle. 

Meanwhile  Hayne  was  devoting  himself  assiduously  to  the  rail- 
road. Surveyors  were  despatched  with  instructions  to  report  to 
the  Board  of  Survey  at  Flat  Rock,  North  Carolina,  on  June  20, 
to  enable  that  body  to  prepare  a  report  for  the  convention  which 
was  to  meet  at  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  on  July  4,  and,  as  chairman, 
he  issued  an  address  calling  on  the  people  throughout  the  State  to 
select  delegates  to  represent  them  there.  In  this  address  he  be- 
Y  sought  them  not  to  consider  local  interests  or  sectional  jealousies,  as 
the  matter  rose  far  above  even  the  great  material  interests  involved, 
and  furnished  the  one  way  of  preserving  the  Union.1  Leaving 
young  Colcock  to  examine  the  route  through  Pendleton  District 
more  completely,  he  pushed  on  to  Flat  Rock  to  prepare  his  report. 
A  subsequent  letter  indicates  that  he  examined  a  route,  later  made 
much  of  by  Calhoun,  as  pointed  out  by  a  guide  furnished  by  resi- 
dents acting  with  Calhoun  in  this  matter. 

On  July  4, 1836,  the  convention  opened  at  Knoxville,  Tennessee. 
Delegates  from  Indiana,  Ohio,  Kentucky,  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama  and  Tennessee  attended,  380  in  all. 

1  Courier,  March  30,  1836. 


? 


PRESIDENT   OF  THE   KNOXVILLE   CONVENTION         401 

Hayne  was  unanimously  chosen  president  and  Blanding  presented 
the  report  which  the  South  Carolina  Board  of  Survey  had  prepared. 
From  the  result  of  the  investigations  made  by  the  three  or  four 
engineers  appointed  by  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  and  the  four  de- 
tailed by  the  Secretary  of  War,  it  was  declared,  "  There  is  no  route 
within  the  limits  of  the  existing  charter  by  which  a  railroad  can 
be  carried  across  the  Blue  Ridge  that  must  not  pass  along  the  valley 
of  the  French  Broad  River,  and  the  commissioners  are  under  a  full 
conviction  that  this  valley  affords  by  far  the  best  channel  of  com- 
munication between  the  Ohio  River  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean."  l 
The  report  of  the  committee  of  forty-five  made  it  clear  that,  for  the 
times,  it  was  a  most  stupendous  undertaking.  The  estimate  for 
the  241  miles  required  in  South  Carolina  was  $2,514,546;  for  the 
100  miles  in  North  Carolina,  $2,560,000;  for  the  90  miles  in  Ten- 
nessee, $2,700,000;  for  the  250  miles  necessary  to  reach  both 
Cincinnati  and  Mayesville,  $3,040,500  would  be  required;  while 
with  regard  to  the  additional  branch  to  Louisville,  the  distance 
approximated  only  was  put  at  $990,000.  The  report  entered 
very  fully  into  the  material  advantages  of  the  great  road,  but  did 
not  fail  to  bring  out  that  which  had  seemed  of  such  transcendent 
importance  to  Indiana,  Ohio  and  South  Carolina,  "its  controlling 
and  permanent  influence  on  the  peace  and  perpetuity  of  the  Union 
by  practically  increasing  the  reciprocal  dependence  of  the  North 
and  the  South  from  Michigan  to  Florida  by  establishing  connec- 
tions in  business,  promoting  friendships,  abolishing  prejudices, 
creating  greater  uniformity  in  political  opinions  and  blending  the 
feelings  of  distant  portions  of  the  country  into  a  union  of  heart" 
This  is  the  note  struck  again  and  again  by  Hayne  from  the  incep- 
tion of  the  enterprise  until  his  death :  "  Let  this  be  pressed  home 
upon  the  States,  and  let  them  be  urged  by  every  consideration  of 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Knoxville  Convention.     Printed  by  Knoxville  Reg.  Office, 
p.  5,  Report  of  So.  Ca.  Commissioners. 


402  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

patriotism  and  duty  not  to  neglect  the  means  which  Providence 
seems  at  this  time  to  have  thrown  in  their  way,  for  the  purpose  of 
effecting  the  greatest  object,  which  it  may  ever  be  in  their  power 
to  accomplish,  —  that  of  forming  a  lasting  union  between  the  West 
and  the  South,  by  binding  them  in  the  golden  chain  of  mutual 
sympathies  and  common  interests;  by  breaking  down  all  the  bar- 
riers which  now  divide  them  and  causing  the  stream  of  commerce 
to  spread  its  benign  and  fertilizing  influence  through  regions  which 
want  only  this  to  become  the  fairest  portion  of  the  globe."  *  By 
the  Charleston  Courier  it  was  declared:  "Hayne  has  acquired 
imperishable  honors  in  this  convention.  After  the  most  hearty 
thanks  of  the  convention  had  been  awarded  him,  he  made  a  most 
beautiful  and  happy  address  in  parting,  and  thus  has  our  labor 
terminated."  2  By  the  convention,  Hayne  was  requested  to  issue 
an  address,  setting  out  the  results  for  the  public  to  act  upon.  This 
task  he  accomplished  with  his  usual  ability,  not  belittling  it  in  the 
slightest  degree;  but  claiming  in  all  sincerity:  "If  Maryland  can 
afford  to  appropriate  $8,000,000  to  secure  her  share  of  the  com- 
merce of  the  West ;  if  the  young  and  flourishing  State  of  Indiana 
finds  it  to  be  her  interest  to  become  responsible  for  $10,000,000  to 
be  expended  on  works  of  internal  improvement,  it  must  be  com- 
paratively easy  for  the  six  or  eight  flourishing  States  chiefly  inter- 
ested in  our  great  work  to  raise  any  amount  that  could  possibly 
be  required  for  its  speedy  accomplishment."3  In  his  "History 
of  Transportation  in  the  Eastern  Cotton  Belt,"  Professor  Ulrich 
B.  Phillips  has  discussed  this  address.  In  the  main,  the  synopsis 
he  gives  of  it  is  correct ;  but  he  seems  to  have  been  betrayed  into 
criticism  of  Hayne,  which  the  authority  he  depends  upon  does  not 
fairly  bear  out.     He  says  in  that  most  interesting  and  otherwise 

1  Address  of  Hayne,  President  of  Knoxville  Convention,  Pamphlets,  Vol.  2, 
No.  10,  p.  35,  Charleston  Library  Society.  2  Courier,  July  18,  1836. 

3  Address  of  Hayne,  President  of  Knoxville  Convention,  Vol.  2,  No.  10,  p.  4, 
Charleston  Library  Society. 


PRESIDENT   OF  THE   KNOXVILLE   CONVENTION         403 

instructive  work:  "In  conclusion,  Hayne  stated  the  charter  re- 
quirement of  subscriptions  amounting  to  $4,000,000  prior  to  Jan. 
1,  1837,  and  he  gave  the  reckless  advice  that  every  man  should 
subscribe  for  as  many  shares  as  he  could  see  his  way  clear  to  paying 
the  first  instalment  of  $5  upon."  l  Hayne  stated:  "The  charters 
provide  that  subscriptions  for  stock  shall  be  opened  in  the  several 
States,  on  the  third  Monday  in  October  next,  to  raise  the  sum  of 
$4,000,000  in  shares  of  $100  each,  on  which  $5  shall  be  paid  at 
the  time  of  subscribing  .  .  .  the  books  are  to  remain  open  till  the 
first  of  January  following,  when,  if  the  sum  of  $4,000,000  shall 
not  have  been  subscribed  .  .  .  the  charters  are  declared  to  be 
forfeited,  and  the  enterprise  will  have  utterly  failed.  Should  this 
amount  be  subscribed  then,  the  Company  is  declared  to  be  estab- 
lished and  are  allowed  two  years  to  commence  operations  and  ten 
to  complete  the  work,  with  liberty  to  raise  the  further  amounts  that 
may  be  required  by  additional  subscriptions,  loans  or  otherwise, 
and  they  are  created  a  corporation  in  perpetuity,  with  ample  powers 
and  privileges."  The  advice  he  gave  was  not  at  all  to  be  described 
as  reckless ;  for  it  was  not,  as  Professor  Phillips  puts  it,  "  that  every 
man  should  subscribe  for  as  many  shares  as  he  could  see  his  way 
clear  to  paying  the  first  instalment  of  $5  upon" ;  but,  " Every  man 
who  can  afford  it,  should  subscribe  liberally ;  he  who  can  spare  only 
$100,  may  subscribe  for  twenty  shares,  and  he  who  can  spare  but 
$5,  for  one  share."  2 

Hayne  believed,  as  he  said,  a  failure  would  be  fatal.  He  invited 
and  solicited  from  every  man  who  could  afford  to  "spare"  it  from 
$5  to  $100,  to  save  the  charters,  in  the  limited  time,  in  which  it 
was  allowed  to  procure  them,  "to  mould  into  one  brotherhood  the 
now  estranged  and  alienated  inhabitants  of  our  widely  extended 
Republic." 

1  "History  of  Transportation  in  the  Eastern  Cotton  Belt,"  p.  186. 

2  Address  of  Hayne,  President  of  Knoxville  Convention,  Pamphlets,  Vol.  2, 
No.  10,  p.  33,  Charleston  Library  Society. 


CHAPTER    III 

pinckney's  defeat,  calhoun's  new  route,  small  amount 
of  subscriptions  outside  of  south  carolina.  mc- 
duffie's powerful  criticism.  how  it  was  met.  the 
vote  of  the  state  for  president  of  the  united  states 

While  these  events  of  great  interest  to  the  business  world,  and 
fraught  with  such  enormous  possibilities  for  the  future  politics  of 
the  whole  country,  were  transpiring,  H.  L.  Pinckney  was  struggling 
desperately  to  get  back  to  Congress,  where,  under  the  circumstances, 
he  would  have  wielded  great  influence.  It  is  impossible  not  to  feel 
some  sympathy  for  his  bold  and  independent  ambition ;  but  he  had 
cut  his  way  ruthlessly  to  power,  trampling  upon  all  who  opposed 
or  questioned  Calhoun's  policies,  and,  as  numerous  anonymous 
correspondents  pointed  out,  he  was  only  receiving  what  he  had 
meted  out  to  others.  Yet  it  required  all  the  political  astuteness  of 
Calhoun's  lieutenants  in  Charleston  to  defeat  him,  and,  had  they 
not  waged  the  campaign  with  peculiar  shrewdness,  it  would  have 
failed.  First,  that  Unionist  least  objectionable  to  the  milliners, 
a  gentleman  of  exceptional  culture  and  many  accomplishments, 
who  had  been  away  from  the  State  and  out  of  the  United  States 
during  the  stormy  nullification  period,  Hugh  Swinton  Legare, 
came  hurrying  home  from  Belgium,  and,  in  addition,  Holmes  was 
brought  out  by  the  milliners.  A  meeting  of  the  Unionists  was 
called  to  decide  whether  they  should  support  Pinckney  or  Legare. 
Richard  Yeadon  was  for  Pinckney,  Petigru,  DeSaussure  and 
Alfred  Huger  for  Legare,  and  they  carried  the  meeting  with  them ; ! 

1  Courier,   Sept.  12,  1836. 
404 


PINCKNEY'S   DEFEAT  405 

still,  the  influence  of  the  editor  of  the  Courier  was  strong  enough  to 
lead  many  Unionists  to  Pinckney,  while  John  and  A.  G.  Magrath 
rallied  their  State  Rights  friends  in  his  support.  It  was  necessary 
to  extract  a  declaration  from  Hayne,  and  he,  while  asserting  his 
close  personal  relation  to  Pinckney,  which  would  prevent  his  op- 
posing him,  declared  that  he  thought  he  had  made  a  grave  mistake, 
and  had  so  written  him  at  the  time.  He  also  stated  that  as 
Intendant  or  Mayor,  to  which  office  he  had  shortly  before  been 
elected,  with  the  views  lived  up  to  by  him  as  Governor,  he  could  take 
no  part  in  local  politics.  The  contest  was  close,  but  Legare  was 
elected.  Before  this  had  occurred,  however,  Calhoun  had  begun 
a  second  movement  against  the  French  Broad  route.  Finding 
that  he  stood  almost  alone  in  advocacy  of  the  junction  with  the 
Georgia  route  by  connection  between  Augusta  and  Athens,  a 
junction  which  Augusta  barred  by  her  opposition  to  a  bridge, 
connecting  Hamburg,  the  terminus  of  the  Charleston  line,  with  the 
road  to  Athens,  asserted  at  the  time  to  have  been  designed  on  a 
different  gauge,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  this  very  junction, 
he  exerted  himself  to  secure  support  for  a  route  "following  the 
old  Cherokee  trading  path  .  .  .  and  crossing  the  summit  of  the 
Blue  Ridge  from  White  Water  Creek,  a  branch  of  the  Keowee  to 
the  Tuckasiege."  Informing  James  Edward  Calhoun  that  he  has 
examined  the  route  in  company  with  Colonel  Gadsden,  he  urges 
him  to  get  up  meetings,  have  parties  qualify  for  directors  as  "  with 
proper  efforts  the  road  may  be  taken  this  way ;  and  if  it  should,  I 
do  not  doubt  that  it  will  be  the  best  stock  in  the  State.  I  feel 
confident  that  $6,000,000  by  the  Carolina  gap  will  carry  it  from 
Charleston  to  the  Ohio,  such  is  the  great  facility  of  the  route."  * 
Hayne  had  during  this  period  been  actively  at  work,  as  reports 
from  agents  despatched  to  Baltimore  and  other  communications 
indicate.     Among  these  letters  is  an  interesting  one  from  Colonel 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  363. 


406  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

Gadsden,  explanatory  of  his  position.  He  wishes  it  to  be  under- 
stood that  he  had  voluntarily  withdrawn  from  the  survey,  not  that 
he  had  been  superseded ; 1  but  he  thinks  the  conduct  of  the  com- 
missioners of  South  Carolina  towards  him  needs  explanation. 
From  this,  however,  he  proceeds  to  a  discussion  of  routes,  declaring, 
"I  am  more  than  convinced  that  by  explorations  ...  a  way 
can  be  found  to  the  summit  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  I  am  not  so 
sure  that  by  either  the  Green  River  or  Gap  Creek  I  can  so  extend 
the  inclined  plane  as  to  ascend  at  either  of  these  points  on  inclina- 
tions not  exceeding  45  or  50  feet  to  the  mile."  2  From  Patrick 
Noble,  R.  F.  W.  Allston  and  others,  Hayne  receives  communica- 
tions, and  Blanding  writes  of  his  own  address,  "  I  must  have  your 
revising  hand  before  it  goes  to  press,"  and  inquires  as  to  the  neces- 
sary amendments  to  the  charters,  "so  as  to  let  in  Georgia  according 
to  the  intentions  of  the  Knoxville  convention."  But  Hayne  had 
anticipated  this  by  writing  to  the  Governor  of  Georgia,  who  had 
promised  to  place  his  communication  before  the  Legislature  at  its 
convening.3  Such  was  the  situation  when  the  meeting  in  Pendleton, 
to  which  Calhoun  alludes,  took  place,  with  regard  to  which  a  copy 
of  the  proceedings  were  sent  to  Hayne.  That  Hayne  considered 
this  publication  as  to  some  extent  unjust  to  the  railroad,  is  ap- 
parent from  his  reply.  He  denies  that  the  object  of  the  commis- 
sioners has  been  to  designate  any  particular  route,  but  to  obtain 
information  for  the  Legislature:  "For  this  purpose  a  route  in  the 
near  neighborhood  of  that  indicated  by  you  was  explored  in  May 
by  Captain  Williams  and  myself,  which  appeared  to  us  manifestly 
impracticable.  Of  this  Mr.  Calhoun  himself  seems  to  be  per- 
fectly satisfied;  but  he  thinks  we  were  *  misled  by  our  guide.'  If 
this  was  so,  the  fault  was  not  ours.  We  applied  to  the  committee, 
appointed  by  the  citizens  of  Pickens  District  to  direct  us,  one  of 

1  Original  letter  from  James  Gadsden,  Aug.  13,  1836.  2  Ibid. 

3  Original  letter  from  Governor  Schley  of  Georgia,  Sept.  2,  1836. 


PINCKNEY'S   DEFEAT  407 

whom  accompanied  us  on  the  route,  and  we  obtained,  moreover, 
the  best  information  to  be  had  from  the  inhabitants,  in  the  imme- 
diate neighborhood,  all  of  whom  agreed  that  the  route  we  traced 
was  the  best  known  to  them  and  if  that  was  found  to  be  imprac- 
ticable, there  was  no  hope  of  finding  any  better  in  Pickens  District." * 
He  advises  them  that  they  can  lay  all  information  in  their  possession 
before  the  Legislature  and,  from  his  pains  to  show  them,  "if  the 
route  ought  to  have  been  surveyed  the  omission  is  in  no  way 
chargeable  to  us,"  it  looks  as  if,  on  the  very  eve  of  the  opening  of 
the  books,  the  enterprise  was  subjected  to  an  unfair  criticism. 
Every  effort  was  made  by  those  sincerely  interested ;  but  the  result 
fell  below  anticipations,  the  total  subscriptions  from  South  Caro- 
lina being,  at  this  time,  only  $3,133,650.  But  if  South  Carolina 
failed  to  come  up  to  what  was  hoped  for,  what  must  be  said  of  the 
response  of  the  other  States  ?  Tennessee  came  second  with  a  sub- 
scription of  $355,400,  and  Kentucky,  which  had  demanded  two 
extra  branches  and  an  elaboration  of  roads  costing  at  the  lowest 
estimate  $4,089,780,  and  whose  Legislature  had  demanded  double 
the  number  of  directors  assigned  to  each  of  the  other  States,  sub- 
scribed the  magnificent  sum  of  $187,100  to  the  enterprise,  $92,000 
for  one  route  and  $95,000  for  the  other  two.  The  undertaking 
could  not  be  fairly  considered  as  in  the  interest  of  other  than  a  por- 
tion of  North  Carolina,  therefore  her  contribution  of  $102,600  was 
not  quite  as  small  as  at  first  it  might  have  appeared :  but  the  sub- 
scription of  Ohio  was  farcical;  it  amounted  to  $12,200.  The  total 
subscriptions  therefore  fell  short  by  $209,050  of  the  amount  nec- 
essary to  secure  the  charters;  but  this  amount  Wade  Hampton 
of  South  Carolina,  already  a  munificent  subscriber,  made  up.2 
It  was  in  all  probability  about  this  time  that  Calhoun  wrote  the 
letter  to  Patrick  Noble  which  appears  in  the  correspondence  as 
edited  by  Professor  Jameson,  as  of  date  November  8, 1832,  which  the 

1  Courier,  Oct.  19,  1836.  2  Ibid.,  Nov.  25,  1836. 


408  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

context  discloses  clearly  it  could  not  have  appeared  in,  as  it  relates 
to  events  not  happening  until  1836.  After  stating  that  he  foresees 
a  great  deal  of  agitation  in  relation  to  the  railroad,  and  finding 
some  fault  with  the  Legislature,  he  says :  — 

"Let  it  be  fixed  that  the  two  routes  by  the  French  Broad  and 
Tuckaseege  shall  be  surveyed,  and  that  one  which  is  the  shortest, 
cheapest  of  construction,  of  the  most  favorable  grading,  and  which 
shall  from  its  direction  command  the  greatest  amount  of  trade  and 
travelling  shall  be  selected  and  the  whole  State  will  acquiesce. 
Even  the  selfish  would  be  ashamed  to  object.  I  answer  for  it,  that 
the  people  in  this  quarter  would  cheerfully  assent  to  such  a  course. 
It  is  the  only  one  that  can  unite  all."  *  This  is  an  important  letter, 
and  it  is  a  pity  he  did  not  live  up  to  the  high  sentiments  here  put 
forth;  but  before  he  concludes,  he  somewhat  spoils  the  effect 
by  directly  charging  the  State  Legislature  with  favoritism  to  the 
section  north  of  the  Santee  and  demanding  "justice"  for  the  section 
in  which  the  Tuckaseege  route,  mainly  if  not  entirely,  lay,  i.e.  the 
section  south  of  the  Santee.  As  we  have  seen,  the  amount  neces- 
sary to  procure  the  charters  was  secured  by  the  additional  sub- 
scription of  Wade  Hampton,  and  so  the  first  step  in  the  great  enter- 
prise was  accomplished  and  time  to  work  out  the  details  afforded; 
but  when  the  amount  of  the  subscriptions  became  generally  known, 
the  disappointment  was  keen.  It  was  true  that  it  was  positively 
declared  that  Governor  Cannon  of  Tennessee  would  be  author- 
ized to  subscribe  one-third  of  the  cost  of  the  road  through  Ten- 
nessee; but  with  that  the  portion  through  that  State  would  lack 
from  the  State  something  like  $1,445,000,  and  if  Kentucky  did  add 
to  the  pitiful  sum  of  $187,100  the  $2,000,000  which  the  press  of 
the  State  airily  promised,  yet  that  would  be  little  more  than  half 
the  amount  she  had  made  essential  to  get  the  road  through  her 
borders  to  the  Ohio  River.     To  sum  the  matter  up,  one-fourth 

1"  Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  321. 


PINCKNEY'S   DEFEAT  409 

of  the  sum  needed  had  been  subscribed,  and  more  than  three- 
quarters  of  that,  by  one  State,  —  South  Carolina.  Eloquent  reso- 
lutions had  been  passed  in  the  States  of  South  Carolina,  Ohio  and 
Indiana  apropos  of  the  road  and  the  Union.  In  spite  of  nullifica- 
tion, South  Carolina  had  subscribed  $3,343,200  and  Ohio  $12,200, 
which  was  increased  to  $22,200  when  it  was  found  the  amount 
necessary  had  been  subscribed  to  enable  two  of  her  citizens  to 
qualify  as  directors.  If  it  be  true  that  "  money  talks,"  there  was 
not  much  talk  of  the  Union  north  of  the  Ohio  at  this  time.  It 
was  in  this  condition  of  affairs  that  the  thoughts  of  the  citizens  of 
Charleston  turned  to  the  project  of  a  bank,  to  assist  the  enterprise; 
but  in  addition,  at  the  meeting,  where  it  was  determined  to  apply 
for  such,  it  was  also  decided  that  the  Legislature  be  invoked  "by 
every  consideration  of  patriotism  and  duty,  to  resolve  in  the  name 
of  the  State,  in  no  event,  to  suffer  the  work  to  fail;  but  to  be  pre- 
pared to  do  whatever  may  be  found  necessary  to  insure  its  success."  l 
A  strong  committee,  consisting  of  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  Charles 
Edmonston,  Ker  Boyce,  James  Hamilton,  J.  L.  Petigru,  A.  Bland- 
ing,  Wade  Hampton,  Thomas  F.  Jones  and  W.  F.  Davie,  was 
appointed  to  carry  into  effect  such  measures  as,  in  their  opinion, 
might  be  necessary  to  insure  the  success  of  the  road,  and  then  those 
interested  waited  developments.  On  November  28,  Governor 
McDufne  sent  in  his  message  to  the  Legislature,  and  that  portion 
of  it  which  dealt  with  the  railroad  was  a  powerful  argument  against 
it,  as  chartered.  Indeed,  the  contrast  between  the  mordant  logic 
of  its  crisp  sentences,  with  not  an  unnecessary  word,  its  pitilessly 
just  analysis  of  the  result  and  the  rather  extravagant  expressions 
in  other  parts  of  the  same  paper,  wherein  appear  bombastic  ref- 
erences to  the  achievements  of  Xerxes,  etc.,  almost  suggests  the 
revising  hand  of  Calhoun,  with  regard  to  the  portion  of  so  much 
interest  to  him.     Calhoun  was  at  the  capital,  and  a  letter  from 

1  Courier,  Nov.  25,  1836. 


410  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

him  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  gives  views  which  are  strikingly 
in  accord ;  but  before  quoting  from  this,  the  message  should  be  dis- 
cussed. The  Governor  advised:  " Until  the  route  shall  be  defi- 
nitely selected  and  active  operations  commenced,  the  emergency 
does  not  seem  to  call  upon  the  States  interested  to  embark  in  the 
work  as  stockholders.  Moreover,  there  are  some  considerations 
growing  out  of  the  mode  of  constituting  the  Board  of  Directors, 
prescribed  by  the  charter,  as  amended  by  Kentucky,  and  the  relative 
sums  subscribed  in  the  different  States  which  renders  it  a  measure 
of  obvious  prudence  on  the  part  of  South  Carolina  to  procure  a 
modification  of  the  charter  or  to  make  a  conditional  subscription. 
The  act  of  incorporation  passed  by  this  state  provided  that  3  out 
of  24  directors  should  be  chosen  from  qualified  stockholders 
residing  in  each  of  the  States  of  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina, 
Tennessee  and  Ohio,  and  that  9  should  be  chosen  from  all  the  stock- 
holders. The  amendment  interpolated  by  Kentucky  provides 
that  6  of  the  directors  shall  be  chosen  from  stockholders  residing 
in  that  State;  while  only  3  shall  be  chosen  from  each  of  the 
other  States,  leaving  but  6  to  be  chosen  indifferently  from  all  the 
stockholders.  This  very  exceptional  claim  of  undue  power  on  the 
part  of  Kentucky  becomes  absolutely  revolting  when  we  advert 
to  the  fact  that  the  entire  subscription  in  that  State  amounts  to 
less  than  $200,000,  and  that  no  person  there  has  subscribed  a 
sufficient  number  of  shares  to  qualify  himself  to  be  chosen  a  direc- 
tor. In  this  state  of  things  a  board  of  directors  cannot  be  organized, 
and  if  it  could,  Kentucky,  with  less  than  a  twentieth  part  of  the 
stock,  would  wield  one  fourth  part  of  the  power  of  the  company. 
On  the  contrary,  South  Carolina,  owning  five  sixths  of  the  stock, 
could  in  no  event  have  more  than  9  directors ;  while  the  holders  of 
one  sixth,  out  of  South  Carolina,  shall  have  15.  This  is  certainly 
an  unprecedented  anomaly  in  the  organization  of  corporate  powers, 
and  I  think  the  people  of  South  Carolina  have  been  sufficiently 


PINCKNEY'S   DEFEAT  411 

admonished,  by  bitter  experience  of  the  fatal  consequences  of  hav- 
ing their  interests  controlled  by  a  foreign  and  irresponsible  power, 
to  make  them  very  cautious  in  placing  the  power  on  one  side ;  while 
the  interest  to  be  affected  by  it  is  on  the  other.  .  .  .  Upon  every 
principle  the  road  should  commence  at  Charleston  and  proceed 
continuously  on  towards  its  Western  termination,  at  least  until 
the  money  contributed  in  South  Carolina  shall  be  expended. 
And  yet,  it  will  be  in  the  power  of  directors  out  of  the  state  to  re- 
verse the  operation.  .  .  .  There  is  no  practical  view  of  the  sub- 
ject that  can  make  it  the  interest  of  the  company  or  the  great  public 
concerned  in  the  contemplated  work  to  cover  Kentucky  with  rail- 
roads for  the  privilege  of  passing  through  the  State.  If  the  road 
goes  to  the  Ohio  river,  some  one  point  should  be  selected,  and  as 
Ohio  has  contributed  almost  nothing,  it  would  be  much  wiser  to 
carry  it  directly  to  Louisville,  leaving  Cincinnati  out,  if  a  branch  to 
Louisville  is  the  only  condition  on  which  we  can  obtain  the  privi- 
lege of  passing  through  Kentucky.  There  is  another  alternative 
preferable,  in  my  opinion,  even  to  this.  It  is  to  make  the  mouth  of 
the  Nolachucky,  the  Western  termination  of  the  road,  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  estimate,  will  reduce  the  cost  from  1 2  to  5  million 
dollars."  *  Then,  taking  up  the  suggestion  of  banking  privileges, 
the  message  combated  the  grant  strongly  and  warned  the  body  of  an 
impending  financial  crisis.  Altogether  it  was  a  profoundly  impres- 
sive argument  against  the  plans  of  the  Charleston  meeting  and,  con- 
sidered from  the  practical  view  concerning  a  commercial  under- 
taking, almost  unanswerable.  That  Hayne  was  able  to  reform 
his  broken  line  in  the  face  of  this  fire  is  an  indication  of  his  phe- 
nomenal talents  as  a  constructive  statesman  and  leader  of  men. 
While  McDuffie's  message  was,  then,  a  very  great  State  paper, 
there  was  not  in  it  the  slightest  gleam  of  interest  in  any  attempt 
"to  mould  into  one  common  brotherhood  the  now  estranged  and 

1  Courier,  Dec.  1,  1836. 


412  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

almost  alienated  inhabitants  of  our  widely  extended  Republic. " 
That  this  was  a  live  and  vivid  interest  to  a  considerable  portion  of 
South  Carolina  subscribers  was  not  to  be  doubted;  while  to  the 
dauntless  spirit  at  the  head  it  was  the  reason  of  reasons  why  the 
road  should  be  pushed  through,  in  spite  of  every  obstacle.  Truly, 
then,  the  situation  was  a  difficult  one  to  handle.  Suppose  it  was 
admitted  that  the  cost  of  the  road  to  the  mouth  of  the  Nolachucky 
would  be  but  $5,000,000,  what  was  the  assurance  that  that  amount 
could  be  raised  ?  The  total  amount  subscribed  by  North  and  South 
Carolina  was  $3,445,800,  and  of  this  $209,050  had  been  subscribed 
distinctly  to  secure  the  charters  for  the  enterprise,  as  originally 
designed,  a  road  from  Cincinnati  to  Charleston.  That  certainly 
could  not  be  expected  to  be  renewed  for  something  so  different,  and 
if  not  that,  how  much  of  the  remainder,  when  it  was  announced 
that  the  plan  as  originally  contemplated  was  abandoned?  Even 
an  influence  as  great  as  Calhoun's  had  been  powerless  to  change  the 
route  before,  because  it  was  the  connection  between  Charleston 
and  Cincinnati  that  stirred  the  popular  heart,  and  for  it  the  char- 
ters had  been  obtained.  Something  like  a  million  would  probably 
be  forthcoming  from  Tennessee,  and  if  Kentucky  gave  the  two 
millions  which  the  press  of  the  State  promised,  with  a  million 
from  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  two-thirds  of  the  estimated 
amount  would  be  subscribed  for,  with  the  banking  privileges  to 
supply  the  rest.  Business  men  of  tried  ability  thought  well  of  the 
plan,  and  it  had  to  be  adopted,  or  the  project  fall  through ;  there- 
fore there  was  no  disposition  to  accept  the  conclusions  of  the  Gov- 
ernor; but  on  the  other  hand  to  hold  as  closely  as  possible  to  the 
original  plan.  It  is  apparent  that  every  concession  which  could 
be  made  to  placate  Calhoun  was  attempted  which  in  reason  could 
be  offered;  but  from  his  own  letter  nothing  but  an  unconditional 
surrender  would  have  availed.  The  terms  with  which  alone  he 
would  have  been  content  were  extravagant  to  a  degree,  and  the 


PINCKNEY'S   DEFEAT  413 

suspicious  temper  which  his  letter  reveals  could  not  have  failed 
to  have  provoked  discord  had  he  been  chosen  as  the  head  of  the 
enterprise.  A  letter  written  upon  the  eve  of  his  departure  indi- 
cates with  what  lack  of  temperance  Calhoun  regarded  a  difference 
of  opinion  with  him.  The  letter  is  dated  from  Columbia,  December 
9,  1836,  and  is  to  James  Edward  Calhoun,  whom  he  desires  to  go 
to  Knoxville  "to  see  what  is  going  on."  Speaking  of  conditions  in 
Columbia,  he  says :  "  I  fear  the  game  is  in  the  hand  of  Blanding, 
and  that  the  enterprise  will  be  so  managed  as  to  sink  millions  with- 
out any  substantial  advantage  to  the  State.  The  push  at  this  mo- 
ment is  to  get  banking  privileges,  and  a  subscription  on  the  part 
of  the  State,  without  waiting  the  Surveys.  The  object  is  to  com- 
mit the  State  so  that  she  cannot  recede,  let  the  selection  be  ever 
so  objectionable.  I  fear  both  objects  will  succeed;  and  if  they 
should,  that  the  whole  concern  will  terminate  in  little  better  than  a 
stock  jobbing  affair.  Williams  is  here,  and  I  hear  that  the  survey 
has  been  recommenced  since  I  left  home.  I  have  no  confidence 
in  his  impartiality  and  but  little  in  his  judgment.  The  route  he 
has  ordered  to  be  surveyed  on  the  east  side  of  the  gap  is  calculated 
to  deceive,  unless  one  should  fully  understand  the  topography  of 
the  country.  .  .  .  The  elevation  of  the  gap  is  probably  greater 
than  I  estimated  it;  but  unless  it  should  exceed  1500  feet  above 
the  mouth  of  12  miles,  after  taking  off  the  crest  by  a  tunnel,  which 
is  not  likely,  the  whole  may  be  run  down  at  an  angle  not  exceeding 
30  feet  to  the  mile,  by  keeping  along  the  side  of  the  Chatugee 
Mountain,  round  the  North  fork  of  the  Cheochee,  passing  down 
near  to  Tomassee  and  on  the  ridge  between  Cane  creek  and  Little 
river,  and  crossing  the  Keowee  on  a  high  bridge  below  the  mouth 
of  12  miles.  .  .  .  All  I  ask  is  an  impartial  survey,  when  I  am  at 
home  and  can  attend  to  it.  .  .  .  As  to  the  Presidency  [of  the  rail- 
road], I  see  so  much  that  I  do  not  approve,  that  I  have  concluded 
that  I  had  better  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.     The  only  terms  on 


414  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

which  I  could  accept  would  be  that  it  should  be  tendered  to  me 
without  solicitation  by  the  company  from  a  confidence  in  my  capac- 
ity and  integrity,  and  then  only  on  condition  that  the  best  route 
should  be  selected,  and  I  should  not  be  brought  into  conflict  with 
any  of  my  friends.  In  a  word,  if  I  take  it,  it  must  be  solely  from  a 
sense  of  duty.  I  cannot  think  there  is  the  slightest  prospect  that 
it  will  be  tendered  on  such  conditions,  and  my  friends  had  better 
not  bring  my  name  forward.  I  read  my  letter  to  Hayne  on  this 
subject  to  Burt.  .  .  .  The  more  I  reflect,  the  more  I  am  con- 
vinced that  the  success  of  the  road  will  depend  on  the  direction, 
and  that  on  striking  Steam  navigation  on  the  intermediate  streams 
between  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Ohio  at  the  nearest  and  most 
favorable  parts.  .  .  .  Any  route  that  overlooks  this  important 
advantage  must  fail."  1 

From  this  letter  it  is  apparent  that  Calhoun's  ideas  concerning 
the  great  project  were,  first,  that  it  should  mark  time  until  he  could 
get  through  his  duties  at  Washington  and  return  to  South  Carolina; 
second,  that,  while  he  was  willing  to  direct  it,  he  would  only  do  so 
if  all  responsibility  were  eliminated  and  he  was  promised  not  only 
that  the  best  route  should  be  selected,  but  he  should  be  assured 
that  he  would  not  be  brought  into  conflict  with  any  of  his  friends. 
Reflecting  upon  the  judgment  and  impartiality  of  the  engineer, 
he  yet  indicated  that  something  had  induced  him  to  realize  that  the 
estimate  with  regard  to  which  he  had  found  himself  in  opposition 
to  this  official  was  incorrect  in  some  particulars,  as  it  was  shown 
later  to  be  in  almost  all.  It  would  be  difficult  to  obtain  a  greater 
contrast  between  the  attitude  of  two  great  public  men  concerning 
great  public  measures  than  that  which  this  letter  portrayed  and  the 
spirit  which  animates  Hayne' s  inaugural  upon  his  resignation  of 
the  senatorship.  Upon  the  day  following  Calhoun's  departure, 
a  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of  the  road  was  held  in  Columbia, 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  365. 


PINCKNEY'S   DEFEAT  415 

and  Edmonston  moved  the  appointment  of  a  special  committee  to 
confer  with  the  Legislature  concerning  the  bank  and  for  a  liberal 
subscription.  Judge  Colcock  spoke  in  opposition,  being  replied 
to  by  Blanding,  Ker  Boyce,  Memminger,  Elmore,  Jones,  Mills 
and  others,  and  Edmonston's  resolutions  were  carried  without  a 
dissenting  voice.1  The  act  of  the  Legislature  as  it  was  finally 
framed,  met  all  the  difficulties  of  the  situation,  the  charter  being 
amended  by  a  provision  "  that  three  out  of  the  twenty-four  directors 
of  the  said  company  shall  be  elected  from  the  stockholders  re- 
siding in  each  of  the  States  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  North  Caro- 
lina and  South  Carolina,  and  twelve  of  the  said  directors  may  be 
elected  from  the  stockholders  at  large,  without  regard  to  their  place 
of  residence.  That  the  said  Railroad  Company  shall  be  discharged 
from  all  obligation  to  construct  any  branches  of  the  said  Railroad 
in  the  State  of  Kentucky,  or  to  extend  the  main  road  in  the  said 
State  further  than  from  the  southern  line  thereof  to  Lexington  in 
the  said  State.  That  whenever  it  shall  be  the  unanimous  vote  of 
the  general  directors  residing  in  any  State  requiring  it,  the  general 
board  of  directors  shall  apply  the  amount  subscribed  by  that  State 
or  its  citizens  in  the  first  place  to  the  construction  of  such  portions 
of  the  said  road  as  may  be  within  the  limits  of  the  State.  In  case 
the  State  of  Kentucky  should  not  agree  to  the  amendments  above 
proposed,  the  said  Railroad  Company  shall  be  and  hereby  is  con- 
stituted a  body  politic  and  corporate  in  the  States  of  South  Caro- 
lina, North  Carolina  and  Tennessee,  with  all  the  powers,  rights  and 
privileges  granted  to  it  by  the  Acts  of  the  Legislatures  of  the  last 
mentioned  States  incorporating  it,  discharged  from  all  obligations  to 
construct  any  road  in  the  State  of  Kentucky,  or  to  have  any  resident 
directors  therein  or  to  have  more  than  twenty-one  general  directors; 
but  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  construed  to  release  the  said 
company  from  the  obligation  to  extend  their  road  to  the  southern 

1  Courier,  Dec.  13,  1836. 


416  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

boundary  of  Kentucky."  1  In  addition  to  the  passage  of  this 
act,  which  fairly  met  and  answered  the  Governor's  very  powerful 
assault,  without  capitulating  to  it  entirely,  very  liberal  banking 
privileges  were  granted  against  his  advice,  with  restrictions  and 
conditions  that  the  capital  of  the  bank  should  not  exceed  $6,000,000 
until  the  road  should  reach  the  Tennessee  line;  nor  $9,000,000 
before  it  touched  the  boundary  of  the  State  of  Kentucky;  whence, 
as  it  proceeded  to  Ohio,  the  amount  could  be  raised  to  $12,000,000. 
Preston  was  reelected  to  the  Senate  by  practically  the  entire  vote 
of  the  State  Rights  faction;  but  among  the  few  votes  cast  in  op- 
position was  one  for  Calhoun.  As  Calhoun  was  at  the  time  a 
Senator,  one  wonders  whether  this  vote  was  an  exhibition  of  Peti- 
gru's  sarcasm.  In  the  caucus  of  the  State  Rights  party,  with  re- 
gard to  the  election  of  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  the  names  of  Van  Buren,  Harrison  and  White  were  all  three 
brought  forward.  The  first  received  not  a  single  vote,  the  second 
one  and  the  third  not  sufficient  to  make  him  the  choice  of  the  faction, 

and  with  ill-becoming  levity  it  was  decided  to  vote  for  Mr. , 

of  Charleston,  for  President,  and  John  Tyler  for  Vice-President. 
The  somewhat  questionable  humor  of  this  selection  seemed  to 
appeal  with  less  force  to  the  members  of  the  faction  at  the  time  of 
the  vote,  and  Mangum,  of  North  Carolina,  and  John  Tyler  became 
the  choice  of  the  State.  In  the  election  which  followed,  Harrison 
developed  unexpected  strength,  carrying  the  States  of  Vermont, 
New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Kentucky, 
White  securing  only  two,  Tennessee  and  Georgia,  while  Webster 
and  Mangum  each  carried  but  one;  Van  Buren,  however,  obtained 
a  considerable  majority  over  all  in  the  electoral  college. 

1  Statutes  So.  Ca.,  Vol.  8,  p.  431. 


CHAPTER    IV 

MEMMINGER  SECURES  THE  ACCEPTANCE  BY  NORTH  CAROLINA  OF 
THE  AMENDED  CHARTER  FOR  THE  ROAD.  ANONYMOUS 
ATTACK  ON  ROAD  IN  MERCURY.  HAYNE'S  REPLY.  SUSPEN- 
SION OF  SPECIE  PAYMENTS  BY  NORTHERN  BANKS.  ACTION 
OF    CHARLESTON    BANKS 

The  year  1837  opened  with  a  determined  and  intelligently 
directed  effort  to  pull  the  railroad  project  into  proper  shape  with 
the  change  of  front  made  necessary  by  the  slight  support  outside 
of  South  Carolina  and  the  powerful  criticism  contained  in  Mc- 
Duffie's  message.  By  the  amendments  to  the  charter  every  ob- 
jection urged  by  the  Governor  had  been  reasonably  met;  but  the 
task  was  now  to  get  the  States  of  North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky  to  accept  the  changes.  For  this  work  C.  G.  Memminger 
was  appointed  and  empowered  by  the  newly  elected  Governor, 
Pierce  M.  Butler,  to  appear  before  the  North  Carolina  Legislature 
and  lay  the  matter  before  that  body.  It  would  have  been  difficult 
to  have  made  a  better  selection.  Memminger  was  no  longer  the 
young  and  aspiring  lawyer  whose  candidacy  for  the  position  of 
Attorney- General  of  the  State,  just  prior  to  nullification,  had  so 
shocked  the  conservatism  of  the  Charleston  press.  He  had  made 
his  influence  felt  not  only  at  the  bar,  but  in  the  legislature,  and 
in  a  new  field  it  was  now  to  be  exhibited.  The  North  Carolinians 
were  not  very  friendly  to  the  project.  With  regard  to  it,  as  origi- 
nally planned,  Governor  Swain  had  promised  that,  if  North  Caro- 
lina did  not  aid,  she  would  not  oppose.  She  had  aided  with  a  small 
2  e  417 


418  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

subscription.  Having  done  so,  she  was  now  asked  to  grant  privi- 
leges to  an  alien  corporation.  The  Speaker  of  the  North  Caro- 
lina House  of  Representatives,  Haywood,  an  able  man  and  leader 
of  the  Van  Buren  forces  in  the  State,  was  opposed.  The  vote  of 
South  Carolina  for  Mangum  of  North  Carolina  was  declared  to  be 
an  intrusion  by  South  Carolina  into  the  politics  of  North  Carolina, 
and,  by  a  vote  of  24  to  22,  the  Senate  refused  to  grant  the  banking 
privileges.  The  fight  seemed  lost,  but  by  a  vote  of  24  to  21  the 
vote  was  reconsidered  *  and  Mr.  Memminger  accorded  the  privi- 
lege of  addressing  the  joint  assembly.  The  North  Carolina  press 
was,  in  the  main,  against  the  grant,  on  account  of  nullification. 
The  Raleigh  Standard,  voicing  the  views  of  the  opposition,  in  the 
following  publication:  "In  the  hands  of  patriotic  friends  of  the 
Union  —  and  none  are  patriots  who  are  otherwise  —  it  might  be 
productive  of  all  the  good  that  its  warmest  friends  desire.  But  if  it 
fall  under  the  control  of  disappointed  ambition  and  aristocratic 
pride,  how  long  could  the  people  resist  its  overwhelming  and  cor- 
rupting influence?"  Special  objection  was  made  to  "the  Cal- 
houns,  the  McDuffies  and  the  Hamiltons."  2  Speaker  Haywood 
exerted  himself  to  the  utmost,  but  Memminger's  clear  and  forceful 
utterance,  supported  as  it  was  by  members  of  the  body,  carried  the 
measure  through  by  a  vote  of  53  to  49  in  the  House.3  His  luminous 
discussion  reveals  his  perception  even  then  of  the  great  possibili- 
ties of  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry  lying  dormant,  but  later 
to  grow  to  such  astonishing  dimensions  in  that  very  region.  He 
declared  that  the  banking  privileges  were  absolutely  essential  to 
the  construction  of  the  road.  Following  close  upon  this  victory, 
the  stockholders  met  at  Knoxville,  and  R.  Y.  Hayne  was  unani- 
mously chosen  president  of  the  Company.  In  the  language  of  the 
correspondent  of  the  Courier:  " Indeed  no  other  gentleman  appears 
to  have  been  thought  of  —  all  eyes  were  turned  to  him  as  identified 

1  Courier,  Jan.  n,  1837.  2  Ibid.,  Jan.  18,  1837. 

3  Ibid.,   Jan.  17,  1837. 


AMENDED    CHARTER   FOR   THE   ROAD  419 

with  the  road  and  giving  the  greatest  confidence  to  the  stock- 
holders." !  The  French  Broad  River  route  was  definitely  chosen. 
From  South  Carolina  the  9  directors  selected  were  R.  Y.  Hayne, 
James  Hamilton,  Charles  Edmonston,  Mitchell  King,  B.  F.  El- 
more, Abraham  Blanding,  John  C.  Calhoun,  John  W.  Simpson 
and  Robert  G.  Mills.  From  Ohio  the  three  chosen  were  E.  D. 
Mansfield,  William  Green  and  Joseph  Bonsai.  From  Kentucky 
there  were  6,  Robert  Wickliffe,  W.  H.  Richardson,  James  Taylor, 
J.  W.  Tibbatts,  J.  B.  Cary  and  J.  L.  Ludlow.  The  3  from  Tennes- 
see were  John  Williams,  J.  G.  M.  Ramsay  and  Alexander  E. 
Smith,  while  F.  E.  Hardy,  Thomas  J.  Forney  and  Benjamin 
Roberts  represented  North  Carolina.  The  total  amount  sub- 
scribed was  $4,333,200,  paid  up,  on  the  5  per  cent  instalment, 
$218,660,  of  which  South  Carolina's  share  was  $3,525,100  sub- 
scribed and  $176,255  paid  in,  so  that,  contributing  over  six-eighths, 
she  contented  herself  with  but  three-eighths  of  the  board,  yielding 
one-eighth  to  each  of  the  States,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and 
Ohio,  and  two-eighths  to  Kentucky.  It  could  not  be  denied  that  the 
nullifying  State  was  acting  most  liberally.  Major  McNeill  was 
appointed  Chief  Engineer,  and  Captain  Williams,  Associate.  The 
latter,  who  had  been  assisted  by  Lieutenant  Drayton  and  Mr. 
Featherstonaugh,  reported  exhaustively  on  the  route  sprung  on 
the  Company  between  meetings  by  Calhoun  and  Gadsden,  which 
was  shown  to  have  an  absolute  rise  and  fall  in  30  miles  of  5159 
feet  to  1294  along  the  French  Broad  valley.2 

Hayne  did  not  attend  the  meeting  at  Knoxville,  at  which  he  was 
chosen  president  of  the  Company,  his  duties  as  Mayor  of  Charleston 
keeping  him  too  closely  occupied.  At  his  recommendation  many 
useful  improvements  had  been  undertaken,  among  which  may  be 
mentioned  the  purchase  of  the  lots  and  continuation  of  the  Battery 
around  the  south  side,  as  a  public  walk,  constituting  what  is  now 

1  Ibid.,  Jan.  25,  1837.  2  Ibid.,  Jan.  27-30,  1837. 


420  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

known  as  White  Point  Garden,  prior  to  that  time  the  promenade 
having  been  confined  to  the  eastern  side.  A  call  for  subscriptions 
to  8000  additional  shares  of  the  South  Carolina  Canal  and  Railroad 
Company,  promptly  oversubscribed,  made  about  this  time,  directs 
attention  to  the  Company's  reply  to  the  invitation  of  the  Louisville, 
Cincinnati  and  Charleston  Railroad  to  unite  with  it  at  Columbia 
or  any  other  point  on  the  charter  limit.  The  South  Carolina  Canal 
and  Railroad  Company  offered  to  construct  a  road  from  Branch- 
ville  to  Columbia,  having  the  same  stability  and  permanency  as 
the  road  above  Columbia,  and  that  the  same  should  be  completed 
and  put  in  full  operation  as  soon  as  100  miles  in  a  continuous  line 
should  be  made  and  put  in  operation  by  the  Louisville,  Cincin- 
nati and  Charleston  Railroad  Company  above  Columbia.1  This 
seems  to  have  been  the  wisest  way  in  which  the  great  project  could 
have  been  worked,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  war,  which  was  con- 
ducted from  within  against  the  French  Broad  route,  very  probably 
would  have  been  adopted;  but  with  the  hope  of  ending  this,  the 
much  more  expensive  plan  of  purchase  was  later  entered  into,  as 
will  be  shown. 

A  public  dinner  offered  Senators  Calhoun  and  Preston,  upon  the 
end  of  the  session  of  Congress,  indicated  considerable  irritation  at 
the  defeat  of  Congressman  Pinckney,  still  glowing  in  Charleston, 
the  Courier  declaring  that  his  defeat  "was  only  effected,  and  even 
then  with  great  difficulty,  by  a  combination  of  those  who  disap- 
proved of  his  conduct  with  those  of  the  Union  party  who,  while 
approving  of  Mr.  Pinckney's  course,  yet  from  party  or  private  con- 
siderations preferred  the  eloquent  and  talented  Legare,  who  is  not 
only  a  Unionist  and  friend  of  the  present  administration,  but  is 
believed  not  to  differ  from  Mr.  Pinckney  in  his  view  of  the  proper 
mode  of  meeting  the  Abolition  question  in  Congress."  2  The  din- 
ner was  held,  Mayor  Hayne  presiding;    but  it  was  immediately 

1  Courier,  Nov.  24,  1836.  2  Ibid.,  Feb.  15,  1837. 


AMENDED   CHARTER   FOR   THE   ROAD  421 

followed  by  a  Pinckney  dinner,  which  was  in  many  respects  a 
peculiar  demonstration.  While  few  if  any  men  of  great  promi- 
nence attended,  it  was  a  large  and  enthusiastic  gathering,  and  the 
second  toast  breathed  revolt.  It  ran  as  follows:  "The  Right  of 
Individual  opinion  —  Inestimable  to  freemen  —  formidable  to 
tyrants  only  —  The  patriots  of  the  revolution  died  to  acquire  it  — 
We  can  never  live  to  abandon  it."  *  Theoretically  this  was  fine, 
but  when,  later  in  the  festivities,  William  Drayton  was  extolled, 
for  the  loss  of  whose  seat  in  Congress  and  the  impairment  of  whose 
right  to  express  his  individual  opinion  Pinckney  was  probably 
more  responsible  than  any  individual  in  Charleston,  an  element  of 
the  grotesque  was  introduced.  Nevertheless,  it  was  an  illustration 
of  an  effort  to  shake  off  that  iron  grasp  which  was  fastening 
on  the  politics  of  South  Carolina.  Meanwhile,  so  well  had  Hayne 
conducted  the  affairs  of  the  city  that  great  pressure  was  brought 
to  bear  upon  him  to  induce  him  to  stand  for  reelection.  His  legal 
practice  must  have  been  impaired,  if  not  entirely  destroyed,  by 
his  long  connection  with  public  affairs.  His  property  must  have 
been  modest  and  his  expenses  not  small,  making  the  salary  an  in- 
ducement, and  there  was  interesting  work  to  occupy  him ;  but  to 
him  the  great  Western  Railroad  project  meant  much  more  than  a 
great  industrial  work.  To  him  it  appealed  as  the  salvation  of  the 
State  and  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  This  last  he  firmly 
believed  to  be  threatened  by  the  Abolition  movement,  into  which  the 
aged  ex- President  John  Quincy  Adams  had  flung  himself  with  all 
the  ardor  of  one  released  from  all  earthly  ties  and  fanatically 
devoted  to  an  ideal  long  smothered  by  policy  and  personal  ambi- 
tion. The  times  were  threatening,  and  Hayne,  having  been  elected 
to  the  position  of  president  of  the  Western  road,  determined  to  bend 
every  energy  henceforth  to  that  one  task,  accordingly  declined  the 
reelection  to  the  mayoralty.     Yet  the  mood  in  which  he  undertook 

1  Ibid.,  April  10,  1837. 


422  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

the  stupendous  task  of  binding  together,  in  that  day,  the  alienated 
sections  of  the  Republic  by  an  iron  highway  for  commerce  moving 
through,  in  some  places,  untrodden  regions,  could  hardly  be  de- 
scribed as  sanguine.  Rather  was  it  the  spirit  in  which  he  had,  at 
the  call  of  his  State,  resigned  his  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate, 
to  accept  the  perilous  position  and  heavy  responsibilities  of  Gov- 
ernor during  the  nullification  period.  In  declining  the  reelection 
to  the  mayoralty,  in  regard  to  the  Railroad  he  said:  "I  feel  in 
devoting  my  best  efforts  to  the  advancement  of  so  great  a  work 
I  am  rendering  the  highest  public  service  in  my  power.  I  shall 
enter  upon  this  duty  with  the  firm  resolution  to  secure  success, 
if  success  be  practicable  and,  at  all  events,  to  make  such  efforts 
as  shall  relieve  myself,  as  well  as  the  people  of  this  city  and  State, 
from  any  imputation,  should  the  work  be  destined  to  fail."  *  The 
panic  of  1837  had  begun  to  be  felt,  but  that  did  not  obscure  his 
clear,  practical  view  of  the  situation,  as  was  evidenced  by  his  ac- 
curate analysis  of  that  trouble.  "More  than  half  of  the  difficulties 
under  which  the  country  now  labors,"  he  said,  "arise  from  want 
of  confidence  in  ourselves  and  our  resources,  which,  leading  to 
corresponding  efforts,  would  be  the  most  effectual  remedy  for  exist- 
ing evils.  But,  however  that  may  be,  I  am  not  disposed  to  relax 
in  any  degree  my  efforts  to  advance  the  Railroad,  from  any  appre- 
hension of  the  difficulties  which  may  lie  in  the  way." 

Those  difficulties  now  arose  in  every  direction.  The  banks  of 
New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  suspended  specie  payment, 
and  President  Van  Buren  issued  his  proclamation  convening  Con- 
gress in  the  following  September.2  In  every  quarter  was  confusion, 
irritation,  fault-finding  and  abuse.  Ex- Senator  Smith,  nominated 
by  Jackson  for  the  Supreme  Bench  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate, 
had  declined  the  honor  in  a  letter  which  about  this  time  reached 
the  public,  and  which,  while  wittily  ridiculed  by  the  Mercury,  was 

1  Mercury,  May  15,  1837.  3  Courier,  May  23,  1837. 


AMENDED   CHARTER   FOR   THE   ROAD 


423 


a  forceful  utterance.  "His  political  infirmities,"  which  that  paper 
gave  as  the  reason,  was  not  entirely  inaccurate;  for  he  had  based  his 
declination  on  his  desire  to  continue  fighting  for  his  ideals;  but  for 
Smith  to  extol  Pinckney's  Abolition  resolutions,  as  he  did  in  the 
Alabama  Legislature,  was  indicative  of  something  which  could  not 
be  so  described ;  for  to  Pinckney,  more  than  any  one  save  the  two 
individuals  who  at  different  times  had  supplanted  him  in  the 
Senate,  Smith  owed  the  loss  of  his  seat;  as,  against  him  and  in 
behalf  of  Calhoun,  the  columns  of  the  Mercury  had  ever  been 
directed  by  Pinckney  as  editor.  To  meet  the  difficulties  and 
dangers  of  the  financial  situation,  meanwhile,  a  meeting  had  been 
called  in  Charleston  and  a  committee,  of  which  Mayor  Hayne  was 
a  member,  appointed  to  consider  and  report.  The  report  was  most 
encouraging.  Without  a  single  exception,  the  Charleston  banks 
were  found  not  only  solvent,  but  in  a  highly  prosperous  condition ; 
and  notwithstanding  the  continued  demand  for  specie,  by  which 
large  amounts  had  been  withdrawn,  there  remained  in  the  vaults 
$1,096,786.50  in  gold  and  silver,  to  which,  they  reported,  might  be 
added  a  large  amount  of  public  stock  equivalent  to  specie.  The 
total  amount  of  their  notes  in  circulation  was  found  to  be  at  this 
time  $3,501,619.88;  assets,  $17,858,091.03;  assets  beyond  all 
liabilities,  $7,864,113.40;  surplus  and  clear  profit,  $832,794.92. 
The  committee,  however,  reported  that  the  suspension  of  specie 
payments  by  the  banks  of  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore 
would  soon  drain  this  "if  our  banks  continued  to  redeem  their 
notes  in  specie."  It  was  therefore  advised:  "1st:  That  the  notes 
of  each  bank  should  be  freely  received  by  every  other  in  deposit 
and  payment  of  debts.  2nd :  That  each  bank  should  lay  before 
the  others  a  weekly  statement  of  their  transactions.  3rd:  That 
weekly  adjustments  should  take  place  of  the  balance  due  by  the 
banks  to  each  other.  4th :  That  during  the  suspension  the  issue 
of  banks  be  confined  within  narrowest  limits  consistent  with  wel- 


424  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

fare  and  wants  of  community,  and  with  a  view  to  the  resumption 
of  specie  payments  at  an  early  day."  1  The  banks  having  cheerfully 
agreed  to  these  conditions,  it  was  resolved  to  suspend  specie  pay- 
ments temporarily,  to  protect  the  Charleston  banks  from  the  inevi- 
table result  of  the  suspension  of  the  banks  elsewhere ;  but  to  pay 
bills  of  $i  and  $2  of  the  Bank  of  the  State  and  so  much  specie  (es- 
pecially in  small  change)  as  the  public  might  require.  A  corre- 
spondent from  New  York,  after  giving  a  gloomy  picture  of  condi- 
tions there,  claims  this  proceeding  in  Charleston,  probably  the  first 
attempt  at  a  clearing  house,  had  raised  the  credit  of  Charleston 
and  the  State,  but  he  warns  the  public  of  further  trouble  from  the 
operation  of  English  bankruptcy  laws.  We  have  seen  that  in  his 
declination  to  consider  a  reelection  to  the  mayoralty  and  his  deter- 
mination to  devote  all  of  his  energies  to  the  railroad,  to  the  presi- 
dency of  which  he  had  been  elevated  without  a  dissenting  voice, 
Hayne  had  declared  that  "half  our  difficulties  arise  from  lack  of 
confidence. "  The  change  in  charter  which  had  become  necessary 
had  been  accepted  by  North  and  South  Carolina,  and  the  tactful 
surrender  to  Kentucky  by  South  Carolina,  with  regard  to  the 
number  of  directors  at  the  expense  of  South  Carolina,  had,  it  was 
reported,  brought  about  the  acceptance  by  that  Sjtate  of  the  altera- 
tion in  the  original  plan,  comprised  in  the  substitution  of  a  road 
simply  to  Lexington,  in  place  of  the  network  of  roads  over  Ken- 
tucky, branching  from  Lexington  to  Cincinnati,  Louisville  and 
Mayesville.2  It  remained,  therefore,  to  obtain  the  consent  of  Ten- 
nessee and  Kentucky  to  the  banking  privilege  grant  and  to  finish 
the  survey  of  the  route  between  Branchville  and  Lexington,  Ken- 
tucky, a  line  of  about  500  miles,  when  the  work  of  construction 
could  commence.  Major  McNeill  and  his  assistants  had  been  in 
the  field  but  a  few  months,  plodding  through  untrodden  forests 
and  over  great  mountains  and  crossing  wide  and  rapid  rivers,  far 

1  Courier,  May  18,  1837.  2  Ibid.,  Feb.  25,  1837. 


AMENDED   CHARTER   FOR  THE   ROAD  425 

from  anything  approaching  civilization,  in  many  quarters.  For 
the  times  it  was  a  most  stupendous  work  they  had  in  hand,  and  it 
was  most  essential  that  before  any  step  should  be  taken  the  most 
thorough  information  should  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  Board  of 
Directors,  especially  in  the  light  of  the  disturbed  financial  condition 
of  the  country.  Yet  this  was  the  time  selected  by  an  anonymous 
correspondent  for  a  venomous  assault  upon  the  personnel  of  the 
enterprise.  Writing  under  the  nom  de  plume  of  "Many  Stock- 
holders," this  individual  attacked  with  insinuation  and  innuendo 
the  president  of  the  company  and  the  engineers.  The  tone  of  the 
communication  was  rancorous,  the  style  that  of  one  unused  to 
epistolary  labor,  but  well  versed  in  engineering  work,  especially 
that  which  had  been  done  for  the  General  Government.  Appear- 
ing in  the  Mercury,  it  ran  as  follows:  "Many  Stockholders  in  the 
Charleston,  Louisville  and  Cincinnati  Railroad,  in  their  individual 
right  as  well  as  in  the  right  of  others  whose  interests  they  guard  and 
represent  in  said  company,  are  desirous  of  ascertaining  from  the 
President  and  direction  what  arrangements  have  been  consummated 
and  what  contracts,  if  any,  have  been  made  with  a  chief  engineer, 
with  a  view  to  the  survey  in  contemplation  for  the  present  season. 
It  is  well  understood  that  the  officers  of  the  Company,  including 
the  Engineer  department,  have  been  selected;  but  it  is  equally 
notorious  that  the  subject  of  their  compensation  (which  should 
have  been  settled  on  selection)  has  been  left  an  open  one,  and  that 
in  accepting  and  entering  on  duty  (as  the  direction  failed  in  fixing 
the  salaries  they  deemed  adequate),  exactions  for  themselves,  on 
the  part  of  the  chief  and  associate  Engineers,  have  been  made  and 
listened  to  by  the  President  and  Board ;  while  to  the  chief  Engineer 
(with  most  extravagant  pretensions)  has  been  given  full  authority 
to  compensate  his  subordinates  as  his  judgment  may  direct.  All 
threatening  (for  want  of  previous  understanding  and  arrangement) 
collisions  which  ought  to  have  been  avoided  by  those  entrusted 


426  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

with  the  administration  of  our  affairs,  or  the  necessity  of  yielding 
to  most  extravagant  extra  expenditures,  which  no  company,  how- 
ever liberal  its  views  or  large  its  funds,  can  ever  long  sustain.  The 
reconnoisances  and  surveys  should  constitute  an  inconsiderable 
fraction  (a  cipher)  in  the  mass  of  unavoidable  expenditures  for 
grading  and  construction;  but  if  a  chief  engineer,  for  mere  tem- 
porary services,  who  acknowledges  a  superior  allegiance  elsewhere 
and  that  he  can  bestow  on  the  road  only  an  inspective  supervision, 
is  to  receive  $20,000  per  annum  for  such  occasional  services,  his 
associate  about  half  that  sum,  and  the  President  and  division  sub- 
ordinates (on  whom,  however,  it  seems  by  this  organization  the  labor- 
ing oar  is  to  fall)  in  proportion,  we  would  ask  what  relative  amounts 
must  be  awarded  the  superior  officers  of  the  company  and  how  much 
of  the  5  per  cent  paid  of  the  subscription  will  be  left  in  the  Treasury 
at  the  close  of  the  year,  when  such  unprecedented  salaries  are  sub- 
mitted. .  .  .  The  Charleston,  Louisville  and  Cincinnati  Railroad 
originated  as  it  was  generally  supposed  in  high  and  patriotic  senti- 
ments, and  it  was  the  impulse  of  those  feelings  which  impelled  many 
individuals  to  take  a  deep  interest  in  a  project  involving  so  many 
commercial  and  political  considerations,  and  even  to  embark  sums 
beyond  their  ordinary  means.  They  still  confidently  hope  that, 
like  other  projects,  this  magnificent  one  will  not  be  paralyzed  by 
humbuggery  and  mystification  and  that  the  contribution  of  gener- 
osity and  high  wrought  feelings  will  not  be  converted  into  a  purse 
to  be  scrambled  for.  What  would  have  been  the  fate  of  the  Ham- 
burg and  Charleston  Railroad,  that  proud  monument  to  the  enter- 
prise and  disinterestedness  of  our  citizens,  if  pretensions  for  salaries 
so  disproportioned  to  services  rendered  had  then  been  preferred 
and  submitted  to  .  .  .  If  an  Aiken  and  a  Horry  had  not  vol- 
unteered personal  services  without  compensation  and  advanced 
pecuniary  means  with  but  a  distant  hope  of  remuneration?"  1 

1  Mercury,  May  31,  1837. 


AMENDED   CHARTER   FOR   THE   ROAD  427 

Alluding  to  the  compensation  of  Allen  and  his  assistants,  and  citing 
Bernard  as  having  done  unremitting  work  by  day  and  night  for 
the  General  Government  at  not  much  more  than  $4000  a  year,  and 
declaring  that  with  but  little  more  than  that  the  exclusive  services 
of  practical  and  successful  men  could  be  commanded,  the  writer 
warns  the  public  we  are  approaching  a  time  which  enjoins  economy, 
etc.,  subscribers  may  withdraw,  States  may  refuse  to  grant  the  bank- 
ing facilities  and:  "To  the  road  and  its  accomplishment,  if  we 
would  direct  our  means,  we  must  hold  our  agents  responsible  for 
the  manner  in  which  they  apply  them." 

While  containing  some  criticism  which  might  have  been  pro- 
ductive of  good,  if  put  more  fairly,  the  tone  of  this  piece  was  so 
ill-natured  as  to  be  injurious,  and  Hayne  realized  it  must  be  an- 
swered at  once.  Not  having  attended  the  meeting  at  which  the 
engineers  had  been  selected,  and  knowing  that  as  president  he  had 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  choice,  he  not  unnaturally  assumed 
that  they  had  been  chosen  by  the  company,  which  he  later  corrected, 
when  informed  that  their  selection  had  been  made  by  such  of  the 
Board  as  were  present  at  Knoxville.  With  regard  to  salaries,  how- 
ever, he  stated  definitely  that  they  were  not  as  it  had  been  insin- 
uated; that  no  final  arrangements  had  been  made  with  the  chief 
engineer,  while  the  president  had  not  cost  the  company  a  cent. 
To  this  he  added :  "  The  President  will  here  further  state  that  while 
he  has  felt  himself  constrained  to  accept  the  office  from  an  assur- 
ance that  no  other  arrangement  satisfactory  to  the  stockholders 
generally  could  be  made,  he  shall  be  ready  to  surrender  this  trust, 
on  the  slightest  intimation  that  he  does  not  enjoy  their  entire 
confidence.  With  regard  to  compensation,  he  is  perfectly  willing 
to  leave  it  to  the  company  to  say  whether  he  shall  serve  them  gratui- 
tously or  otherwise."  Continuing,  he  deprecated  the  indulgence  of 
a  captious  spirit  calculated  to  add  to  difficulties  by  exciting  distrust, 
as  nothing  could  be  easier  "in  the  present  circumstances  of  the 


428  ROBERT  Y.    HAYNE 

country"  than  "to  shake  public  confidence  in  any  great  work." 
While  realizing  the  possibility  of  failure,  in  view  of  the  wrecks  in 
every  direction,  he  asserted:  "We  have  so  far,  however,  advanced 
prosperously,  and  our  present  condition  is  peculiarly  fortunate. 
The  objectionable  provisions  introduced  by  Kentucky  into  the 
charter  have  been  repealed  by  her  Legislature,  and  the  amend- 
ments proposed  by  South  Carolina  adopted."  He  defended  the 
use  of  the  most  skilful  and  experienced  engineers,  and  thought 
the  time  they  must  take  would  enable  the  country  to  recover 
from  the  embarrassment  then  noticeable.  He  argued  that  with 
two-thirds  of  the  cost  of  the  road  through  Tennessee  pledged  by 
that  State,  and  one  million  dollars  subscribed  by  South  Carolina, 
in  addition  to  the  four  million  already  subscribed  with  the  banking 
privileges,  there  was  a  reasonable  prospect  of  success,  and  expressed 
the  hope  that  "no  premature  abandonment,  no  jealous  spirit  of 
distrust,  but  above  all,  no  groundless  imputation  of  unworthy 
motives,  will  be  allowed  to  disturb  the  harmony,  defeat  the  efforts 
and  paralyze  the  energies,  on  which  the  success  of  the  work  en- 
tirely depends."1 

So  unfair  was  this  attack  deemed,  that  the  Mercury  stated  it 
would  depart  from  its  usual  custom  in  refraining  from  comment 
on  such  publications,  to  declare  itself  not  in  sympathy  with  the 
article  which  it  believed  expressed  not  the  view  of  "many  stock- 
holders, "  but  that  of  only  one  person  of  importance,  and  that  in  the 
opinion  of  the  paper,  "Hayne's  relinquishment  of  his  station  would 
be  the  most  fatal  blow  to  the  prosperity  of  the  company."  2 

"Many  Stockholders"  continued  his  articles,  to  which  there 
were  replies  by  others;  but  as,  from  every  quarter,  at  this  time 
encomiums  were  being  pronounced  upon  Hayne's  management 
of  the  city  in  which  he  was  described  as  "from  earliest  dawn  until 
night  examining  with  his  own  eyes  the  public  works  and  seeing  that 

1  Courier,  June  2,  1837.  a  Mercury,  June  3,  1837. 


AMENDED   CHARTER   FOR   THE   ROAD  429 

the  city  officers  did  their  duty,"  in  the  effort  to  get  him  to  reconsider 
his  determination  not  to  stand  for  reelection,  it  was  difficult  to 
work  up  an  opinion  in  opposition  to  the  practically  unanimous 
declaration  that  "  the  retirement  of  such  an  official  would  be  a  public 
loss."  *  Yet  within  a  month  or  two  there  comes  a  fresh  cry  from 
an  anonymous  source  that  "it  is  not  yet  too  late  to  recoil  from  the 
false  position  and  unite  in  the  accomplishment  of  a  road  half 
finished."  2  And  it  was  apparent  that,  with  the  elimination  of  the 
Tuckaseege  route,  by  the  report  of  the  engineers  demonstrating 
its  impracticability,  secret  influences  were  again  at  work,  if  not  for 
the  Georgia  road,  at  least  against  the  French  Broad  route. 

1  Courier,  June  10,  1837.  3  Ibid.,  July  8,  1837. 


CHAPTER  V 

MEETING  AT  CHARLESTON  TO  DENOUNCE  BANKS  CAPTURED  BY 
OPPONENTS.  REVEREND  FISKE  THREATENS  BLOODSHED  IF 
HAYNE  PRESIDES.  HAYNE  PRESIDES  AND  FISKE  IS  STRUCK. 
EX-GOVERNOR  WILSON  AND  WADDY  THOMPSON  CRITICISE 
THE  CHAIRMAN.  HAYNE's  TERM  AS  MAYOR  ENDS  SUCCESS- 
FULLY. DIVISION  IN  CONGRESSIONAL  DELEGATION  FROM 
SOUTH    CAROLINA.      PETIGRU    A    FALSE    PROPHET 

Whether  caused  by  the  inconveniences  arising  from  the  panic 
or  having  much  deeper  root,  there  grew  up  in  the  State  of  South 
Carolina,  in  this  year  of  1837,  a  feeling  of  great  hostility  to  the 
national  bank  and  to  some  extent  to  banking  in  general,  among 
the  rougher  classes,  and  in  July  a  meeting  seems  to  have  been 
called  in  Charleston  to  fulminate  against  them.  Just  what  con- 
nection H.  L.  Pinckney  had  with  this,  it  is  difficult  to  understand. 
It  seems  to  have  been  expected  he  would  preside ;  but  he  decided 
not  to  attend.  He  was  a  candidate  for  the  mayoralty,  which  would 
soon  be  vacated  by  Hayne,  and  probably  looked  in  the  main  for  his 
support  from  the  masses  of  the  voters  rather  than  from  any  persons 
of  property.  The  Reverend  Theophilus  Fiske  was  to  have  been  the 
orator  of  the  occasion,  and  did  indulge  in  some  very  remarkable 
utterances  for  one  of  the  cloth ;  but  the  meeting  was  not  carried  out 
as  designed.  What  was  styled  the  respectable  portion  of  the 
community  took  charge,  installed  Mayor  Hayne  as  chairman, 
hissed  down  the  orators  of  the  populace  and  made  the  meeting  the 
opportunity  for  the  declaration  of  their  own  sentiments.  With 
regard  to  the  action  of  Mr.  Alfred  Huger,  in  taking  occasion  to 
express  his  views  most  forcibly  by  word  of  mouth,  in  opposition  to 

43° 


MEETING   TO    DENOUNCE   BANKS  431 

the  callers,  it  is  impossible  not  to  sympathize,  for  he  was  meeting 
boldly  in  the  open,  face  to  face,  some  whom  he  probably  had  good 
reason  to  suspect  guilty  of  breaking  into  the  post-office,  for  the  care 
of  which  he  was  responsible,  two  years  previous.  The  attitude  of 
Mr.  Petigru,  also,  was  in  accord  with  his  publicly  announced  views 
throughout  his  political  life;  but  the  fact  that  Fiske,  no  matter 
how  incendiary  his  language,  should  have  been  struck  at  a  meeting 
over  which  Robert  Y.  Hayne  presided,  was  not  to  the  credit  of  that 
distinguished  South  Carolinian.  The  fact  that  there  had  been 
objections  urged  against  Hayne' s  taking  the  chair,  and  at  first  he 
had  declined  to  do  so,  made  it  the  more  incumbent  upon  him  to  see 
that  all  entitled  had  a  hearing.  The  declaration  of  the  Reverend 
Theophilus  Fiske,  that  if  he  assumed  the  chair  there  would  be  blood- 
shed, was  just  the  argument  best  calculated  to  cause  Hayne  to 
assume  it ;  yet  there  is  no  denying  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  chair- 
man to  secure  a  hearing  for  the  speakers,  or  yield  his  position  to  one 
who  can.  It  may  be  that  the  chairman  was  not  aware  of  the 
incident  at  the  time  of  its  occurrence,  and,  if  the  Reverend  Fiske  was 
threatening  if  the  mayor  of  the  city  dared  to  preside  at  a  meeting, 
there  would  be  bloodshed,  he  is  not  entitled  to  much  sympathy 
for  being  stricken ;  but  as  all  accounts  in  the  press  were  published 
by  papers  out  of  all  sympathy  with  Fiske  and  his  friends,  among 
whom  was  ex- Governor  John  Lyde  Wilson,  who  criticised  the 
mayor  very  sharply  for  the  occurrence,1  alluded  to  also  by  Congress- 
man Waddy  Thompson  a  little  later  as  discreditable,  we  are  forced 
to  conclude  that,  upon  this  one  occasion,  Hayne  failed  to  rise  to  that 
height  of  impartiality  which  was  so  habitual  with  him,  and  which 
was  one  of  the  most  distinguishing  marks  of  his  high  character. 
This  same  bank  question  was  responsible  for  a  difference  of  opinion, 
which  now  began  to  appear  between  Calhoun  and  his  senatorial 
colleague,  Preston,  which  from  his  comments  at  the  opening  of  the 

1  Courier,  Aug.  2,  1837. 


432  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

session  seemed  to  him  then  quite  natural.  "I  go  against  the 
chartering  of  a  United  States  bank  or  any  connection  with  Biddle's 
or  any  other  bank.  .  .  .  My  colleague,  as  I  understand  him, 
goes  for  Biddies'  bank,  and  will  probably  take  a  portion  of  the 
Representatives  with  him.  Like  divisions  will  probably  run 
throughout  all  the  States,  and  I  would  not  be  surprised  if  an  en- 
tirely new  organization  of  parties  should  arise  out  of  the  present 
state  of  things."  1  But  as  the  heat  of  the  contest  developed,  and 
it  appeared  patent  that  every  vote  would  tell,  Calhoun,  while  ex- 
pecting to  win,  was  somewhat  intolerant  of  opposition  to  his  view, 
and  writes  to  his  daughter  at  the  end  of  September :  "  I  regret  that 
my  colleague  has  not  thought  fit  to  go  with  me.  I  think  both  he  and 
General  Thompson  have  acted  badly,  but  I  leave  it  to  them  and 
their  constituents."  2  But  if  Calhoun  was  now  inclined  to  criticise 
Preston,  he  himself  did  not  escape  criticism.  In  a  letter  falling 
ten  days  after  the  first  and  thirteen  prior  to  the  second,  of  the 
above  expressions  of  opinion  James  L.  Petigru  gives  his  idea 
of  the  situation  from  a  view  at  Washington:  "I  shall  hear  Mr. 
Calhoun  in  the  Senate.  That  gentleman  has  taken  an  extraor- 
dinary turn,  and  is  going  to  make  a  speech  to-morrow  and  it  is 
given  out  in  favor  of  the  Message.  All  the  members  of  our 
State  will  be  against  him  except  two,  Mr.  Pickens  and  Barnwell 
Smith,  now  called  Rhett.  Nothing  can  be  more  monstrous 
than  to  support  a  scheme  for  doing  away  with  bank  paper,  and 
of  course  with  credit,  and  ruining  all  who  are  in  debt.  It  is  awful, 
it  is  so  sudden,  and  of  Mr.  Calhoun  so  unexpected.  However,  he  is 
to  be  heard  to-morrow,  and  we  shall  be  better  able  to  judge  then 
what  his  scheme  is,  as  well  as  how  he  defends  himself;  but  at 
present  it  appears  that  there  will  be  a  fatal  breach  between  him  and 
his  friends  in  Carolina." 3   In  this  conclusion  the  wish  was  evidently 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  pp.  377-378.  3  Ibid.,  p.  380. 

3  Petigru's  unpublished  correspondence,  Sept.  17,  1837. 


MEETING  TO   DENOUNCE   BANKS  433 

father  to  the  thought,  and  in  the  letter  which  immediately  follows, 
even  more  so:  "I  have  just  heard  Mr.  Calhoun  "on  the  divorce  of 
Bank  and  State;  but  it  is  in  reality  a  divorce  of  Calhoun  from  his 
little  party  and  the  first  step  to  a  union  between  him  and  the  ad- 
ministration. He  made  a  speech  unequal  to  his  reputation ;  in  fact, 
I  think  Barnwell  Smith  will  make  a  better  one  on  the  same  side."  1 
In  much  of  this,  Petigru  was  wrong.  The  speech  was  strong 
enough  to  bring  to  the  speaker,  the  State,  in  spite  of  the  opposition 
of  some  of  the  most  influential  men  in  it. 

In  considering  the  period  of  Hayne's  administration  of  muni- 
cipal affairs,  mention  should  be  made  of  his  attitude  on,  and 
opinion  of,  the  condition  of  the  free  colored  people  and  slaves  of 
that  time.  It  is  stated  on  the  authority  of  an  aged  member  and 
ex-President  of  the  Brown  Fellowship  Society  of  Charleston,2 
that  in  1836,  a  law  having  been  passed,  permitting  no  more 
than  seven  negroes  to  meet  together,  Mr.  Hayne  sent  for  the 
record  book  of  the  Brown  Fellowship  Society,  to  which  reference 
has  been  before  made,  and  glancing  over  it,  expressed  his 
opinion  that  the  law  was  not  intended  for  such,  and  that  their 
meetings  would  be  permitted.  Be  that  instance,  reported  on  the 
strength  of  the  memory  of  an  aged  man,  correct  in  all  particulars  or 
not,  in  his  valedictory  report  to  Council,  Mayor  Hayne  touched  upon 
the  condition  of  this  class,  as  the  following  extract  from  the  report 
printed  by  order  of  Council  will  show:  "In  reference  to  our 
Colored  Population,  it  has  been  my  unceasing  effort  to  improve 
their  condition,  and  at  the  same  time  to  enforce  an  exact,  though 
mild  and  wholesome,  system  of  discipline.  The  City  Ordinances 
give  great  power  to  the  Mayor  over  this  class  of  people,  and  it 
depends  in  some  measure  upon  the  sound  discretion,  steady 
firmness  and  enlightened  humanity  displayed  by  this  officer  in  his 
dealings  with  them,  whether  they  shall,  like  the  Free  Blacks  of  the 

1  Ibid.,  Sept.  18,  1837.       2  Thomas  McPherson  Holmes,  born  Sept.  13,  1809. 

2F 


434  ROBERT  Y.    HAYNE 

North,  become  vagabonds  and  outcasts,  or  be  an  orderly,  industrious 
and  contented  class  of  productive  laborers.  No  efforts  have  been 
spared  on  my  part  to  break  up  their  connection  with  the  dram 
shops  and  gambling  houses,  which  has  hitherto  been  so  destructive 
to  their  health  and  morals,  and  I  am  truly  rejoiced  to  be  able  to  say 
that,  though  much  still  remains  to  be  done,  a  great  deal  has  been 
accomplished  in  this  respect.  A  few  years  more  of  steady  exertion, 
sustained  by  public  opinion,  will  rescue  our  slaves  from  the  tempta- 
tions to  which  they  have  heretofore  been  exposed,  and  cut  up  by  the 
roots  the  infamous  practices  to  which  they  have  so  often  fallen 
victims."  Continuing,  he  proceeds  to  show  that  all  attempts  to 
enforce  the  laws  against  dram-shop  keepers,  gamblers  and  other 
offenders,  must  prove  abortive  as  long  as  the  suburbs  are  excluded 
by  the  city's  boundary  from  the  operation  of  the  ordinances,  and 
earnestly  recommends  the  union  as  essential  to  the  welfare  of 
both  city  and  suburbs.1  But  before  passing  from  this  point,  it 
might  be  well  to  submit  some  evidence  as  to  what  was  the  condition 
of  some  of  the  free  colored  people  of  Charleston  at  this  time; 
and  reference  being  had  to  the  very  book  consulted  by  Mayor 
Hayne,  the  following  appears:  "Mr.  Marchant,  Chairman 
school  committee,  stated  to  the  President  &  members  that  some 
necessary  examinations  being  required  of  the  children  by  the  com- 
mittee, he  had  to  defer  a  report  to  the  next  meeting.  Mr.  B.  T. 
Huger  moved  that  the  school  committee  be  authorized  to  put  two 
of  Mr.  Gordon's  and  two  of  Mrs.  Bampfield's  children  to  school  as 
soon  as  practical,  seconded  by  R.  E.  DeReef  and  carried."  2 

Having  brought  his  one-year  term  of  the  mayoralty  to  a  conclu- 
sion, with  a  total  expenditure  of  $284,146.69  and  a  balance  in  hand 

1  Extract  from  Report  of  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  Mayor,  dated  Sept.  i,  1837.  Printed 
by  order  of  City  Council  of  Charleston,  original  in  possession  of  Professor  Yates 
Snowden  of  Columbia,  South  Carolina. 

2  Minutes  of  "Brown  Fellowship  Society,"  July  7,  1836,  in  possession  of  J.  H. 
Holloway  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 


MEETING   TO   DENOUNCE   BANKS  435 

of  $7,443.91/  in  spite  of  many  improvements,  leaving  the  office  to 
be  contended  for  by  Pinckney  and  Lynah,  Hayne,  with  his  usual 
energy,  and  with  the  assistance  of  the  railroad  only  to  Orangeburg 
County,  on  his  way  to  Flat  Rock,  North  Carolina,  to  attend  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  Western  Railroad  Company,  visited,  in 
addition  to  Orangeburg,  the  districts  of  Richland,  Fairfield, 
Chester,  Marion,  Spartanburg  and  Greenville,  and  from  North 
Carolina  wrote  Ker  Boyce  and  Hamilton  to  put  them  in  possession 
of  all  the  latest  information,  received,  just  in  time  to  answer,  a  four- 
column  communication  appearing  in  the  Courier  in  criticism  of 
the  French  Broad  route  and  laudatory  of  the  Georgia  connection, 
published  above  the  signature  of  James  Gadsden,  in  which  every 
argument  presented  by  Calhoun  in  his  private  and  public  letters  on 
the  subject  reappears.2 

What  were  the  purposes  of  this  inscrutable  man  ? 

The  political  condition  was  peculiar.  On  the  face  of  affairs, 
President  Van  Buren  led  one  party,  to  which  Calhoun  was  now 
lending  his  support,  for  doing  which  H.  L.  Pinckney  had  been 
thrown  out  of  Congress  the  year  previous,  and  for  lack  of  which 
his  successor  would  be  soon  forced  out.  On  the  other  side  stood 
Clay,  obtaining  no  too  cordial  support  from  Webster  and  a  party 
torn  by  the  Abolitionists  into  two  factions.  These  seemed  to  be  the 
leaders;  but  down  below  the  surface,  two  former  friends  were 
directing  the  real  forces,  and  with  a  patient  yet  fervid  zeal  warring 
against  each  other.  The  real  leaders  of  the  opposing  policies  of  the 
country  were  not  Van  Buren  and  Clay,  but  John  Quincy  Adams 
and  John  C.  Calhoun.  The  latter  has  given  his  view  of  conditions 
as  he  saw  them  at  this  time,  and  considered  in  connection  with  the 
view  of  Adams,  of  about  the  same  time,  a  powerful  light  is  thrown 
upon  the  situation.  Writing  in  February  of  this  year  to  Hammond, 
Calhoun  says:  "We  have  for  the  last  12  years  been  going  through 
1  Courier,  Sept.  1,  1837.  2  Ibid.,  Sept.  30,  1837. 


436  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

a  great  and  dangerous  juncture.  The  passage  is  almost  made 
and,  if  no  new  cause  of  difficulty  should  intervene,  it  will  be  suc- 
cessfully made.  I  at  present  see  none  but  the  abolition  question, 
which,  however,  I  fear  is  destined  to  shake  the  country  to  its  centre. 
It  has  made  great  progress  since  you  left  us.  .  .  .  For  the  first 
time  the  bold  ground  has  been  taken  that  slaves  have  a  right  to 
petition  Congress ;  and  what  is  wonderful,  a  vote  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  has,  by  a  strong  implication,  sustained  the  ground 
which  has  neither  been  rescinded  nor  superseded,  and  we  are  about 
to  adjourn,  leaving  this  question,  which  involves  directly  the  right 
to  emancipate,  in  this  uncertain  condition,  or  rather,  to  express 
myself  more  strongly  and  at  the  same  time  more  truly,  the  act  of 
emancipation;  for  the  right  to  petition  Congress  is  itself  emanci- 
pation. .  .  .  Our  fate  as  a  people  is  bound  up  in  the  question.  If 
we  yield,  we  will  be  extirpated ;  but  if  we  successfully  resist,  we  will 
be  the  greatest  and  most  flourishing  people  of  modern  time.  It  is 
the  best  substratum  of  population  in  the  world,  and  one  on  which 
great  and  flourishing  Commonwealths  may  be  most  easily  and 
safely  reared."  1 

The  beginning  of  this  twelve  years  had  marked  the  parting 
between  Calhoun  and  Adams,  which  Adams's  elevation  to  the 
Presidency  brought  about.  Prior  to  that,  the  relation  between 
them  had  been  as  cordial  as  it  was  possible  for  two  such  icy 
natures  to  warm  to.  Adams's  tentative  inquiries  of  his  friend 
Calhoun,  some  six  or  seven  years  earlier  still,  had  brought  out  the 
prompt  announcement  that  any  attempt  to  interfere  with  slavery 
would  bring  about  the  creation  of  two  nations  with  armed  forces 
patrolling  the  frontiers.  While  sighing  for  an  individual  to  "  arise 
with  a  genius  capable"  of  performing  "the  duties  of  an  angel  upon 
earth"  with  regard  to  the  abolition  of  slavery,  Adams  had  turned 
to  a  more  practical  but  hardly  as  angelic  a  process  of  "  extirpation 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  368. 


MEETING   TO   DENOUNCE   BANKS  437 

of  the  African  race  by  the  gradually  bleaching  out  process  of  inter- 
mixture where  the  white  portion  is  already  predominant."  The 
action  of  his  own  State,  Massachusetts,  as  indicated  by  the  report  of 
her  Legislature,  in  182 1,  concerning  the  undesirable  and  injurious 
colored  population,  had  for  a  while  chilled  his  zeal,  while  great 
official  station  and  responsibility  and  close  intimacy  with  Clay  had 
checked  the  growth  of  ideas  on  this  subject.  When,  however, 
in  1833,  Clay  had  made  his  remarkable  about  face  on  the  tariff, 
Adams,  in  parting  company  with  him,  made  ominous  allusion  to 
slavery  in  his  powerful  speech  against  the  compromise.  Yet  even 
in  1836  he  was  prepared  to  declare  that  Congress  had  no  right 
to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  it  was 
Calhoun's  opposition  to  the  right  of  petition  that  drove  him  forward 
so  fast  that  in  1837  he  asserted  that  "  the  mass  of  people  preferred 
separation  to  the  annexation  of  Texas."  *  This,  then,  was  his  view 
at  that  time.  Better  the  dissolution  than  any  strengthening  or 
extending  of  slavery.  A  view  certainly  easy  of  comprehension, 
although  historians  are  accustomed  to  ignore  it.  Calhoun's 
view  was  not  as  easy  to  understand,  and  was  not  understood  by  his 
most  intimate  friends  or  any  of  his  biographers.  Two  extraor- 
dinary letters  from  him  to  Duff  Green  disclose  the  utter  inability 
of  this  most  intimate  friend  to  divine  his  chief's  plans.  Green 
wished  his  patron  to  be  either  for  Van  Buren  or  against  him,  and  if 
against  him,  then  with  Clay  or  Webster  and,  upon  Calhoun's 
demurring,  on  the  ground  that  the  abolitionist  and  anti-abolitionist, 
the  consolidationist  and  anti-consolidationist  could  not  act  together, 
he  intimated  that  it  was  personal  ambition  leading  Calhoun  to 
aim  constantly  at  the  Presidency  and  constantly  to  be  defeated. 
To  this  Calhoun  replied  with  great  dignity  and  firmness:  "I  am 
not  of  the  same  party  with  Webster  and  others,  and  do  not  intend  to 
go  into  any  move  that  may  be  controlled  by  abolitionists,  consolida- 

1  Courier,  Sept.  18,  1837. 


438  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

tionists,  colonizationists.  I  speak  as  an  individual.  If  my  friends 
think  differently,  I  shall  not  complain,  but  shall  regard  it  as  a 
signal  that  they  are  tired  of  being  in  a  hopeless  minority  and  that 
it  is  time  for  me  to  step  off  the  stage."  i  To  James  Edward 
Calhoun,  in  the  letter  to  which  reference  has  been  before  made, 
of  date  September  7,  1837,  he  expresses  the  belief  that  Van  Buren 
through  "  terror  of  Jackson,"  has  been  forced  to  so  act  as  to  afford 
an  opportunity  to  break  "  the  control  which  the  North,  through  the 
use  of  Government  credit,  acting  through  the  banks,  have  exercised 
over  our  industry  and  commerce."  2  This,  all  along  the  lines  of 
high  statesmanship,  does  not  prevent  some  pulling  of  wires.  "  In 
the  meantime,  it  is  of  vast  importance  that  the  meeting  in  Augusta 
should  be  fully  attended.  .  .  .  Abbeville  must  send  her  delegates. 
You  and  McDufne  ought  to  be  two  of  them.  Let  a  meeting  be 
called.  ...  It  is  of  little  importance  whether  it  be  fully  attended 
or  not."  Again,  in  October,  he  writes  that  while  he  could  not  get 
to  the  railroad  meeting  at  Flat  Rock,  he  understands  that  the 
French  Broad  route  has  been  abandoned,  that  the  intention  is  to 
purchase  the  Hamburg  road,  unite  with  the  Augusta  and  Athens 
to  extend  their  road  to  meet  the  Georgia  main  track  from  the  Suck 
to  the  Chattahoochee.  "They  now  take  the  very  route,"  he  says, 
"which  I  recommended  three  years  since  and  which  I  could  not 
get  a  single  man  in  Charleston  to  join  me."  3  Calhoun  seems  in 
this  to  be  perfectly  oblivious  of  the  fact  that,  whatever  he  may 
have  "  recommended  three  years  since,"  he  had,  within  a  year,  to  the 
same  correspondent,  asserted  his  belief  in  "  the  vast  superiority  of 
the  route  by  the  Carolina  gap" ;  while  with  regard  to  the  Georgia 
route  he  had  learned  that  the  engineers  "ordered  to  survey  the 
route  down  the  Tennessee  and  thence  across  to  Athens  and  Macon 
from  the  Suck  had  found  the  route  between  the  Lookout  and 
Alleghany  mountains  impracticable  which    must    tend  to  throw 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  376.  2  Ibid.,  p.  377.  3  Ibid.,  p.  381. 


MEETING  TO   DENOUNCE   BANKS 


439 


the  Athens  and  Augusta  interest  with  us."  The  demonstrated  im- 
practicability of  this  latest  discovery  of  his,  the  Tuckaseege  route, 
had,  so  far  from  settling  the  question  between  the  French  Broad  and 
the  Tuckaseege  route,  as  he  had  claimed  to  Patrick  Noble  it  would, 
prior  to  the  survey,  so  thoroughly  that "  even  the  selfish  would  be 
ashamed  to  object,"  had  simply  driven  him  back  to  the  abandoned 
Georgia  route,  in  opposition  to  the  French  Broad.  While  now 
rejoicing  at  what  he  believed  to  be  the  case,  he  does  not  forget  the 
question  which  will  arise  in  the  Legislature  concerning  his  position 
on  the  divorce  of  bank  and  State,  and  urges  his  relative  "  to  secure 
the  members  of  the  Legislature  .  .  .  influential  individuals  and 
McDuffie  in  particular.  ...  He  was  perfectly  sound  when  I  saw 
him  at  my  house  .  .  .  and  I  hope  is  still  so,  but  he  is  liable  to  be 
acted  upon  by  men  inferior  to  himself ;  and  I  must  request  you  to  see 
him  as  early  as  convenient,  to  confirm  him  in  the  faith,  if  sound,  and 
if  not,  to  bring  him  right."  *  While  the  brilliant  Petigru  was, 
therefore,  prophesying  Calhoun's  divorce  from  his  friends,  the 
latter  was  grappling  them  to  himself,  if  not  with  hoops  of  steel, 
at  least  with  the  best  appliances  he  could  utilize.  From  all  this 
it  may  be  inferred  that  Calhoun's  plan  was  to  make  the  South 
commercially  independent  of  the  North,  and  to  closely  connect 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Tennessee  and  Arkansas 
together  by  rail,  thus  uniting  South  Carolina  with  Texas,  which 
would  practically  force  into  the  closest  intercourse  with  the  com- 
bination Louisiana,  Mississippi  and  Florida.  The  slave-holding 
States  would  then  be  strong  enough  to  hold  their  own  in  the  Union 
or  out  of  it.  He  was  not  striving  to  take  them  out.  He  was  for  the 
Union,  but  for  a  Union  in  which  the  South  might  be  commercially 
independent  of  the  North, — too  strong  to  be  interfered  with,  and  with 
"  a  substratum  of  population,"  "  the  best  in  the  world."  The  plan 
was  undeniably  the  great  plan  of  a  great  man,  and  had  it  not  been 

1  Ibid.,  p.  382. 


440  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

for  the  boundless  egotism  of  the  great  projector,  might  have  pro- 
duced even  greater  results  than  those  which  flowed  from  it;  but 
Calhoun  never  seemed  able  to  realize  that  men  less  great  might 
possess  greater  ability  to  work  out  details. 

Between  these  two  policies  of  Adams  and  Calhoun,  abso- 
lutely opposed  to  each  other  and  tending  to  tear  apart  the 
Union,  admitted  by  Adams,  if  not  by  Calhoun,  stood  Hayne  with 
his  plan,  so  grandly  simple  as  to  be  despised  by  politicians 
of  the  day  and  which  has  not  yet,  and  may  not  for  a  while  yet, 
be  appreciated  in  all  its  immense  force.  Hayne' s  policy  was  to 
knit  the  South  and  West  together  by  the  indissoluble  tie  of  com- 
mon business  interests.  Whether  he  still  believed  that  from 
the  intermingling  of  slave  and  free  labor,  as  he  had  asserted  in 
the  Senate,  in  1827,  slave  labor  must  become  unproductive  and 
gradually  pass  away,  or  whether,  from  intercourse  between  the 
sections,  less  opposition  to  it  would  arise,  cannot  be  positively 
stated,  in  the  absence  of  any  declaration  from  him  at  this  time,  as 
full  as  that  made  twelve  years  prior  to  his  death,  to  which  allusion 
has  been  directed;  but  that  he  was  directing  his  efforts  to  the  only 
mode  by  the  which  Union  could  be  preserved  and  the  industrial 
interests  of  the  South,  meanwhile,  be  prevented  from  languishing, 
while  the  question  was  in  the  process  of  solution,  a  careful  study 
of  his  plans,  as  imperfectly  as  they  must  be  presented  in  the  loss  of 
the  bulk  of  his  correspondence,  reveals.  Some  echoes  of  Calhoun's 
declaration  concerning  the  abandonment  of  the  French  Broad 
route  must  have  reached  Hayne  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  for 
Nashville,  to  obtain  the  consent  of  Tennessee  to  the  amended 
charter,  containing  the  concession  of  banking  privileges;  and  to 
meet  those  ill-advised  and  mischievous  statements,  directly  in 
opposition  to  the  action  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  for  the  second 
or  third  time,  he  issued  a  positive,  official  denial. 


CHAPTER  VI 


HIS  RECEPTION  IN  TENNESSEE  AND  HIS  LAST  MEETING  WITH 
JACKSON.  SOUTH  CAROLINA  LEGISLATURE  SUPPORTS  CAL- 
HOUN'S  ATTITUDE  ON  DIVORCE  OF  BANK  AND  STATE,  BUT 
LENDS    CREDIT   OF    STATE    TO   ROAD,    ON    HAYNE'S    APPEAL 

Even  with  the  return  to  the  Ohio  subscribers  of  the  $30,200  in 
consequence  of  the  fixing  the  terminus  at  Lexington,  Kentucky, 
instead  of  Cincinnati,  as  originally  designed,  by  the  subscriptions 
of  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  the  total  was  raised  to  $5,280,000, 
$263,423.35  paid  in,  of  which  $64,557.79  had  been  expended,  an 
amount  about  double  what  the  survey  alone  of  the  Hamburg 
Railroad  had  cost,  over  a  flat,  easy  country,  one-fourth  the  distance, 
and  marked  by  the  hospitable  mansions  of  wealthy  planters.  From 
the  preliminary  surveys  of  Colonel  Gadsden  in  1835,  to  tne  demon- 
stration of  the  utter  impracticability  of  the  Tuckaseege  route  in  the 
beginning  of  1837,  all  examinations  tended  to  show  the  superior 
merits  of  the  French  Broad  route.  It  was  the  route  which  almost 
all  had  united  upon,  and  without  which,  Calhoun  admitted  later, 
he  doubted  whether  the  support  of  the  people  of  South  Carolina 
could  have  been  obtained,  not  to  speak  of  North  Carolina  and 
Tennessee ;  yet  here  was  Calhoun,  a  director,  who  had  not  attended 
the  meeting,  asserting  that  it  had  been  abandoned.  For  the 
president  of  the  company  there  was  nothing  left  to  be  done  than  to 
disclose,  to  some  extent,  the  plans  of  the  company,  which  it  would 
have  been  better  to  have  for  a  while  kept  quiet.     Over  his  signature, 

441 


442  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

as  president,  therefore,  Hayne  published  the  following:  "In  conse- 
quence of  the  extensive  circulation  of  a  report  that  it  is  the  intention 
of  the  company  to  abandon  the  route  through  the  State  and  to 
substitute  a  route  through  Georgia,  we  have  been  requested  to 
publish  ...  the  views  of  the  Stockholders,  as  indicated  by 
the  late  proceedings  at  Flat  Rock.  .  .  .  The  measures  which 
it  is  proposed  at  this  time  to  pursue  may  be  classed  under  the 
following  heads,  viz. :  — 

"  i  st :  The  purchase  of  the  Charleston  Railroad  and  pushing  our 
connections  through  that  road  into  Georgia,  Alabama  and  the 
whole  of  the  Southwest. 

"  2d :  The  extension  of  a  branch  from  Branchville,  or  some  other 
convenient  point  to  Columbia  and  from  thence,  as  far  as  our  means 
may  permit  by  the  best  route  (whichever  that  may  prove  to  be)r 
through  the  centre  of  the  State  toward  the  mountains. 

"3d:  An  application  to  the  Legislatures  of  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky  through  the  President  (who  had  been  appointed  by  the 
Stockholders  a  commissioner  to  those  States)  for  their  concurrence 
in  the  act  granting  Banking  privileges;  and  also  for  pecuniary 
aid,  with  a  pledge  that  any  amount  which  may  be  contributed  by 
those  States  shall  be  applied  to  the  construction  of  the  road  within 
their  respective  limits. 

"  It  will  be  seen  from  these  statements  that  no  idea  exists  at  this 
time  either  of  abandoning  the  enterprise  or  changing  the  direction 
of  the  road ;  nor  is  it  believed  that  a  single  vote  could  have  been 
obtained  in  the  Convention  for  either  of  these  propositions.  In 
relation  to  the  Georgia  route,  concerning  which  much  has  of  late 
been  written  and  published,  the  present  views  of  the  company,  as 
far  as  I  understand  them  are,  that  a  route  through  Georgia  could 
not  be  substituted  for  one  through  the  centre  of  South  Carolina 
without  producing  the  following  results,  viz. :  — 

"  1st :  The  immediate  forfeiture  of  our  charters,  both  for  the 


HIS   RECEPTION   IN  TENNESSEE  443 

Road  and  the  Bank,  and  the  consequent  dissolution  of  the  company. 
Our  charters  have  been  granted  by  the  States  of  North  and  South 
Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  and  not  by  Georgia,  and  they 
do  not  embrace  a  road  passing  through  that  State,  but  through  the 
other  States  above  mentioned. 

"  2d :  But  if  this  were  not  so,  the  adoption  of  a  route  through 
Georgia,  in  place  of  that  proposed  across  our  own  State,  would 
immediately  alienate  from  us  North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky;  and  we  should  be  regarded  as  having  deserted  them 
on  selfish  considerations,  after  making  a  solemn  compact  for  the 
execution  of  a  joint  enterprise  for  common  objects  equally  benefi- 
cial to  all. 

"  3d :  There  is  every  reason  to  apprehend  that  a  large  majority 
of  the  people  of  our  own  State  would  be  alienated  from  the  enter- 
prise, should  the  present  plan  be  abandoned  and  a  route  through 
Georgia  be  substituted  in  its  place,  and  that  the  State  itself  would 
withdraw  the  subscription  of  a  million  dollars,  if  it  was  not  to  be 
applied  to  making  a  road  within  our  own  limits.  To  whatever 
extent  our  Road  may  be  carried,  it  is  indispensable,  if  we  mean 
to  secure  the  support  either  of  the  Legislature  or  the  great  body  of 
the  people  of  South  Carolina,  that  the  route  through  the  centre  of 
the  State  should  not  be  abandoned.  In  conjunction  with  such  a 
route  they  may  consent  to  the  purchase  of  the  Charleston  and 
Hamburg  Road,  thus  enabling  us  to  push  our  connections  through 
that  Road  into  Georgia,  Alabama  and  the  Southwest;  but  they 
will  never  consent  that  the  resources  of  the  State  shall  be  applied  to 
a  road  running  on  the  Southern  border  of  the  State  to  Augusta,  and 
at  that  point  leaving  our  State  entirely.  The  people  of  two  or 
three  Districts  might  be  content  with  this;  but  what  would  the 
people  of  the  other  portions  of  the  State  say  or  do  with  regard  to 
such  a  proposition?  A  road  carried  through  Columbia  and  from 
thence  by  the  best  route,  whichever  that  may  prove  to  be,  to  the 


444  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

mountains,  will  interest  the  whole  State  and,  running  nearly  through 
the  centre,  will  be  within  striking  distances  to  the  people  of  every 
part  of  the  State,  who  may  connect  themselves  with  it  by  short 
branches  or  good  turnpike  roads.  A  road  on  the  southern 
boundary  could  not  possess  these  advantages. 

"  Our  true  policy,  therefore,  would  seem  to  be  this :  To  avail 
ourselves  of  all  the  advantages  to  be  obtained  from  the  possession 
of  the  Charleston  Rail  Road  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  extend  a  hand 
from  that  road  to  Columbia  as  the  first  step.  On  the  Georgia 
route  one  link  in  the  great  chain  has  already  been  made.  The 
Athens  Rail  Road,  with  whom  it  is  clearly  our  duty  to  cultivate  the 
most  friendly  relations,  will  meet  us  at  Augusta,  from  whence  they 
will  construct  a  road  extending  to  Alabama  and  Tennessee.  All 
the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  these  connections  will,  therefore, 
be  secured  to  us  through  the  Charleston  and  Hamburg  Road,  which 
is  already  made  to  our  hands.  But  why  stop  here  ?  Can  any  one 
doubt  the  immense  advantages  that  must  grow  out  of  the  exten- 
sion of  a  branch  to  Columbia  and  from  thence  as  far  as  our  means 
may  permit  towards  the  mountains  and  beyond  them  even  as  far 
as  Lexington  ?  It  may  be  said  that  Tennessee,  North  Carolina  and 
Kentucky  will  not  aid  us  in  the  enterprise.  If  so,  then  our  road,  of 
course,  will  not  be  extended  beyond  the  limits  of  our  own  State. 
But  we  must  wait  for  their  decision  on  the  applications  now  to  be 
made  before  we  can  come  to  such  a  conclusion.  At  all  events,  let 
us  not  abandon  them,  under  the  apprehension  that  they  may 
abandon  us.  Our  true  policy  under  the  existing  circumstances 
seems  to  be  very  obvious.  It  is  to  secure  Banking  Privileges  to  the 
Company,  to  be  used  hereafter,  when  credit  shall  be  restored,  to 
obtain  aid  from  the  Western  States,  if  practicable,  and  if  not,  to 
ascertain  their  views  with  regard  to  the  execution  of  the  original 
project;  to  obtain  the  Charleston  Railroad  and  make  arrange- 
ments for  extending  a  track  to  Columbia.     These  are  the  measures 


HIS   RECEPTION   IN  TENNESSEE  445 

recommended  by  the  stockholders  at  their  last  meeting,  and  in 
which  it  is  hoped  all  will  cordially  concur.  Nothing  I  am  aware  is 
easier  than  to  excite  distrust,  while  confidence  is  not  only  a  plant 
of  slow  growth  but  it  may  be  blighted  almost  with  a  breath.  It  is 
our  determination,  however,  to  go  steadily  forward  with  the  work 
committed  to  our  hands,  in  full  reliance  that  we  shall  be  sustained 
by  the  stockholders  and  Country.  Should  we  be  disappointed  in 
this,  and  a  failure  shall  be  the  consequence,  the  fault  will  not  be 
ours. 

"  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  President."  * 

Without  possibly  knowing  it,  Hayne  was  now  meeting  Calhoun's 
arguments,  and  meeting  them  in  support  of  the  original  scheme, 
which  he  proved  conclusively  must  fail,  if  the  vast  majority  yielded 
to  the  trifling  minority  with  which  this  one  director  seemed  to  be 
in  touch.  While  he  was  away  in  Tennessee,  the  issue  on  which 
the  Congressional  delegation  from  South  Carolina  had  divided  was 
being  thrashed  out  in  the  Legislature  of  that  State,  and  with  su- 
perb confidence  Calhoun  awaited  the  result.  That  Hamilton,  who 
had  led  South  Carolina  up  to  nullification,  under  his  guidance, 
should  be  against  him,  did  not  give  him  the  least  anxiety.  That 
the  brilliant  Preston,  who  had  been  his  mouth-piece  during 
that  stormy  epoch,  was  also  now  arrayed  in  opposition,  disturbed 
him  not  at  all.  But  when,  like  a  flash  from  the  past,  a  publication 
in  opposition  to  his  views  appeared  over  the  signature  of  Langdon 
Cheves,  some  uneasiness  was  felt  by  the  one  paper  among  the 
members  of  the  daily  press  of  the  State  which  gave  him  support. 
The  Mercury  was  disturbed  by  Cheves' s  argument,2  but  recovered 
confidence  quickly,  and  then,  last  of  all,  the  name  and  fame  of  the 
dead  Lowndes  was  invoked  3  against  the  policy  of  his  quondam 

1  Mercury,  Nov.  10,  1837.  2  Ibid.,  Nov.  16,  1837. 

8  Ibid.,  Nov.  16,  1837. 


446  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

friend,  Calhoun.  Time  had,  however,  at  last  destroyed  the  power 
of  that  name,  and  a  new  generation  had  been  coming  forward, 
to  whom  it  was  but  an  echo  of  the  past.  But  if  many  who  had 
been  for  him  in  the  past  were  now  against  Calhoun,  not  a  few 
who  had  been  against  him  were  now  for  him.  Albert  Rhett 
led  the  fight  for  divorce  of  bank  and  State,  and  with  him  were 
Memminger  and  Davie. 

Petigru  and  Yeadon  in  the  House,  and  Hamilton  in  the  Senate, 
stood  in  opposition.     The  resolutions  introduced  were  as  follows :  — 

"  Resolved :  That  in  the  opinion  of  the  Legislature  it  is  expedient 
that  the  revenue  of  the  Federal  Government  be  so  collected 
as  ultimately  to  sever  the  Government  from  all  connection 
with  the  banks : 

"  That  in  the  opinion  of  the  Legislature  the  revenue  of  the 
Federal  Government  should  be  so  deposited,  kept  and  dis- 
bursed as  not  to  be  connected  with  or  used  in  banking  opera- 
tions : 

"  That  it  would  be  unconstitutional,  inexpedient  and  dan- 
gerous to  incorporate  a  National  Bank  to  manage  the  fiscal 
operations  of  the  Federal  Government."  * 

Petigru  soon  realized  how  mistaken  was  his  estimate.  Under 
date  of  December  20  he  mournfully  writes:  "I  have  been  here 
almost  three  weeks,  and  tired  I  am  of  it.  My  position  is  that  of  a 
person  in  a  dead  minority.  Everything  has  gone  for  the  new 
scheme  that  Mr.  Calhoun  patronizes.  I  say  everything,  not 
everybody;  for  Preston,  Hamilton,  Hayne,  Legare  and  I  are 
somebody,  I  think,  not  to  mention  other  names  as  well  entitled 
to  be  considered ;  and  they  say  McDuffie  is  very  sullen,  although 
he  concurs  with  his  old  leader."  2 

1  Mercury,  Dec.  7,  1837. 

2  Unpublished  correspondence  of  J.  L.  Petigru  in  possession  of  J.  P.  Carson,  Esq. 


HIS   RECEPTION   IN   TENNESSEE  447 

Petigru  seems  to  have  done  his  utmost,  and  we  could  well 
spare  some  of  the  tremendously  solid  speeches  with  which  the 
old  papers  abound  for  this  supreme  effort  of  his.  We  are  only 
told,  however,  that  "he  uttered  a  hundred  exquisite  sarcasms, 
told  one  capital  story  and  ended  by  moving  to  lay  the  resolutions 
on  the  table."  *  "It  was  not  to  be  expected,"  says  the  Mercury, 
in  reference  to  his  more  serious  speech  on  the  following  day, 
"that  even  Mr.  Petigru  should  put  forth  anything  positively  new 
on  a  subject  that  has  been  so  long  and  so  sorely  tasked  by  the 
intellects  of  the  greatest  nations."  Memminger  replied  to  Petigru 
effectively,  and  in  the  House  Calhoun  was  vindicated. 

Meanwhile,  at  Nashville,  Hayne  had  been  winning  golden 
opinions.  A  joint  resolution  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Ten- 
nessee called  on  him  for  a  copy  of  his  speech  before  the 
two  houses,  with  regard  to  the  railroad,  and  also  that  delivered 
at  the  public  dinner  given  him  where  "the  citizens  of  Nashville 
attended,  without  distinction  of  party."  2  At  this  dinner  all  vol- 
unteer toasts  were  excluded,  and  but  one  regular  toast  given : 
"The  State  of  South  Carolina  and  the  distinguished  part  she  bore 
in  the  American  Revolutionary  Contest :  No  State  among  the  ever 
memorable  and  revered  thirteen  was  animated  with  a  purer  and 
more  ardent  patriotism;  or  incurred  greater  sacrifices  in  the  com- 
mon cause;  or  suffered  more  public  and  private  calamities;  or 
exhibited  more  illustrious  instances  of  heroism  and  devoted  ability ; 
or  evinced  a  more  determined  opposition  to  British  misrule;  or 
achieved  for  herself  greater  glory.  Our  distinguished  guest,  A 
worthy  son  of  such  a  State."  Of  Hayne' s  response,  the  Nashville 
Banner  said:  "To  say  that  this  admirable  speech  was  character- 
ized throughout  by  the  most  concise  and  convincing  arguments, 
interesting  statistical  facts  and  enlightened  views,  delivered  in  the 
polished  style  of  the  distinguished  speaker,  is  but  to  speak  the 

1  Mercury,  Dec.  11,  1837.  2  Ibid.,  Dec.  8,  1837. 


448  ROBERT   Y.    HAYNE 

general  sentiment  which  pervaded  the  large  and  intelligent  au- 
dience present  on  this  occasion.  .  .  .  The  subject  of  banks  and 
currency  was  handled  with  much  ability,  and  the  views  of  the 
speaker  on  this  branch  of  his  argument  displayed  an  intimacy 
with  the  history  and  operation  of  trade  and  commerce  in  every 
respect  creditable  to  his  high  reputation.  Without  entering  into 
the  exciting  topics  of  Federal  politics,  he  pointed  out  with  the 
clearness  of  noon-day  the  utter  impossibility  and  impracticability 
of  a  hard  money  currency  among  a  commercial  people  and  the 
consequent  necessity  of  a  paper  representative  of  value.  .  .  .  He 
declared  that  the  Road  was  not  a  political  move ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, brought  the  prominent  men  of  both  parties  in  his  own  State 
into  close  and  brotherly  intimacy  for  the  common  good  of  the  South 
and  West."  1  The  speech  carried  the  Tennessee  Legislature  for 
the  measures  advocated  by  the  speaker,  and  the  three  States  of 
North  and  South  Carolina  and  Tennessee  were  now  united  on  the 
amended  charter,  and  for  granting  the  banking  privileges;  while 
Kentucky  was  for  the  amended  charter,  but  had  not  yet  granted 
the  banking  privileges. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Hayne  had  his  last  meeting  with 
Jackson.  Colonel  Arthur  Hayne,  Jackson's  Adjutant  and  In- 
spector General,  and  one  of  his  most  intimate  friends,  has  left  an 
account  of  the  meeting  between  the  two.  He  says:  "General 
Jackson  being  informed  of  General  Hayne' s  arrival  at  Nashville, 
directed  his  private  secretary,  Major  A.  J.  Donaldson,  to  wait 
on  him  with  his  kind  regards,  requesting  him,  before  he  left  the 
State,  to  do  him  the  favor  to  pass  a  day  with  him  at  the  Hermitage. 
The  invitation  was  accepted  and,  as  soon  as  he  had  finished  the 
public  business,  he  rode  out  to  the  Hermitage  and  remained  with 
Jackson  during  the  day.  He  found  his  host  very  feeble  and  much 
changed  in  appearance,  but  his  mind  was  strong  and  vigorous, 

1  Nashville  Banner,  Nov.  24,  1837,  quoted  by  Mercury,  Dec.  12,  1837. 


HIS   RECEPTION   IN  TENNESSEE  449 

his  memory  good,  his  manner  calm,  courteous,  gifted,  as  when  he 
first  became  acquainted  with  him,  in  1820,  at  the  same  place. 
The  day  passed  pleasantly  ...  the  parting  hour  had  arrived,  and 
not  one  word  had  been  uttered  in  relation  to  their  former  antago- 
nistic positions.  My  brother,  standing  before  the  General,  seized 
his  hand  and  said:  'General,  it  is  more  than  probable  we  shall 
never  meet  again  in  this  world,  and  as  we  are  about  to  part,  I  will 
say  to  you  with  perfect  frankness  and  sincerity  that  if,  in  the  dis- 
charge of  official  duties,  circumstances  have  occurred,  and  many 
such  we  know  have  occurred,  to  shake  our  friendship,  on  my  part, 
they  are  now  and  ever  will  be  forgotten.'  General  Jackson  rose 
from  his  seat,  hardly  able  to  stand,  and  taking  the  hand  of  his 
guest  said,  in  reply :  '  Governor  Hayne,  the  kind,  frank  and  noble 
sentiments  you  have  just  given  utterance  to  are  those  I  truly  feel, 
and  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  I  sincerely  reciprocate  all  you 
say.  And  now,  my  dear  sir,  I  rejoice  that  our  mutual  friendship 
is  restored,  and  that  we  stand  together  as  of  old.  The  purity  of 
your  character  —  the  virtues  which  adorn  your  spotless  life  as  a 
public  man  and  in  the  social  and  domestic  circle  —  won  my  friend- 
ship in  our  first  interview  in  1820  at  this  place.  I  say  it  now,  and 
I  say  it  with  pleasure  and  in  sincerity,  that  in  that  great  record  of 
your  country,  which  belongs  to  history,  your  name  will  stand  con- 
spicuous on  the  roll  of  her  illustrious  sons,  as  an  able  jurist,  an 
elegant  orator,  a  wise  counsellor,  a  sagacious  and  honest  states- 
man." * 

In  a  manuscript  note  added  later  than  1859  to  the  above,  Colonel 
Hayne  adds:  " Jackson  did  more  to  produce  the  Compromise 
Act  than  any  one,  and  his  friendship  for  my  brother  had  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  it."  Jackson  forgave  Hayne' s  severe  strictures 
upon  him,  in  all  probability,  because  he  appreciated  the  chivalric 
behavior  of  Hayne  in  making  no  allusion  during  the  nullification 

1  O'Neall,  "Bench  &  Bar,"  Copy  Charleston  Library  Society,  p.  33. 

2G 


450  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

controversy,  to  the  note  which  others  unhesitatingly  asserted  Jack- 
son had  sent  him  in  approval  of  his  speech  in  reply  to  Webster 
in  defence  of  State  Rights. 

Hurrying  back  to  South  Carolina,  Hayne  reached  the  State 
just  about  the  time  of  the  conclusion  of  the  contest  in  the  Legis- 
lature over  the  resolutions  regarding  divorce  of  bank  and  State 
where,  despite  the  efforts  of  Petigru  in  the  House  and  Hamilton  in 
the  Senate,  the  position  of  Calhoun  was  sustained  by  majorities 
far  beyond  even  his  anticipations  of  what  would  be  triumphant, 
the  first  resolution  being  carried  in  the  House  by  a  vote  of  103  to 
14;  the  second  by  112  to  2;  and  the  third  by  97  to  16.  In  the 
Senate,  the  vote  was,  on  the  first,  38  to  1 ;  on  the  second,  36  to  3; 
on  the  third,  32  to  5.1  Yet  while  Hayne' s  views  were  in  accord 
with  the  minority,  a  resolution  to  invite  the  Senate  to  hear  General 
R.  Y.  Hayne  at  the  bar  of  the  House  in  favor  of  the  bill  to  lend  the 
credit  of  the  State  to  the  L.  C.  and  C.  Railroad,  passed  unanimously, 
and  of  his  speech  the  Mercury  said :  "  General  Hayne  then  de- 
livered a  speech  of  some  length,  the  excellence  of  which  is  best 
judged  by  its  effect.  General  Hayne  converted  a  decided  hostility 
to  the  measure  into  an  enthusiasm  in  its  favor."  2  The  comment 
of  the  Courier  was:  " Never  was  the  distinguished  orator  more 
triumphant  or  more  persuasive  in  eloquence."  3 

1  Mercury,  Dec.  14,  16,  1837.  2  Ibid.,  Dec.  19,  1837. 

3  Courier,  Dec.  18,  1837. 


CHAPTER   VII 

R.  BARNWELL  RHETT'S  REMARKABLE  RESOLUTION  CONCERNING 
ABOLITION.  CALHOUN  NOT  READY  FOR  IT.  HAYNE'S  WON- 
DERFULLY CLEAR  APPRECIATION  OF  SOUTHERN  INDUSTRIAL 
CONDITIONS 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  year  1838,  public  attention  was 
directed  toward  the  question  of  slavery.  Calhoun's  resolutions 
concerning  petitions  for  abolition  were  under  debate,  and  to  his 
denial  of  the  right  he  attached  great  importance.  In  framing 
them,  however,  he  seems  to  have  been  unable  to  resist  the  occasion 
presented  for  incorporating  his  own  special  views  as  to  the  for- 
mation of  the  Union,  which  undoubtedly  were  calculated  to  repel 
some  support.  If  he  had  lost  the  support  of  Pinckney  and  of  Legare, 
who  had  succeeded  Pinckney  in  the  House,  as  well  as  Thompson 
and  Campbell;  if  his  colleague,  Senator  Preston,  was  opposed  to 
his  financial  views,  and  with  regard  to  his  resolutions  concerning 
the  right  of  petition  gave  him  but  a  doubtful  support;  if  at  home 
Hamilton  was  in  open  and  unreserved  opposition  to  his  financial 
view;  yet  in  R.  Barnwell  Rhett  there  was  one,  becoming  more 
and  more  prominent  in  the  State,  who  supported  his  financial 
views  in  Congress  and  in  the  State  and  went  a  step  beyond  him 
concerning  slavery. 

Rhett' s  action  in  Congress  took  Calhoun  by  surprise,  and  yet 
from  the  standpoint  of  those  who  thought  and  spoke  as  both 
Calhoun  and  Rhett  did,  it  was  thoroughly  reasonable.  Both 
men  claimed  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  recognized 

451 


452  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

slavery,  as  it  certainly  did;  yet,  if,  in  the  Federal  jurisdiction, 
it  could  be  attacked,  that  instrument  failed  to  protect  it.  There- 
fore, when  the  abolitionist  Slade  moved  to  report  a  bill  to  abolish 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  Rhett's  amendment  went 
straight  to  the  root  of  the  matter.  It  was  —  "and  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  having  proved  inadequate  to  protect 
the  Southern  States  in  the  peaceable  enjoyment  of  their  rights 
and  property,  it  is  expedient  that  the  said  Constitution  be  amended 
or  the  Union  be  dissolved:  Resolved  that  a  committee  of  two 
members  from  each  State  in  the  Union  be  appointed  to  report 
upon  the  expediency  and  practicability  of  amending  the  Consti- 
tution or  the  best  mode  of  dissolving  the  Union."  1  The  temperate 
wording  of  this  resolution  was  in  marked  contrast  to  the  wordy 
vituperation  of  Wise;  but  it  also  brought  Calhoun  suddenly  face 
to  face  with  that  which  he  had  alluded  to  as  approaching.  What- 
ever may  be  said  of  it,  yet  it  was  a  dignified,  statesmanlike  manner 
of  approaching  a  grave  and  imposing  subject,  and,  if  Calhoun  was 
not  ready  for  it,  no  blame  could  be  reasonably  imputed  to  Rhett; 
for  Calhoun  had  declared  very  nearly  five  years  previously  that 
either  the  Force  Bill  or  the  political  connection  must  yield;  and 
the  Force  Bill  had  not  been  repealed.  Calhoun  was  not,  however, 
ready  to  proceed  to  extremities.  His  grandiose  declaration  of 
1833  was  the  result  of  the  mental  intoxication  produced  by  the 
incense  burned  before  him  for  successful  nullification;  and  it 
is  doubtful  if  he  weighed  his  words  as  carefully  as  he  should  have 
done  upon  that  occasion.  Certain  it  is  that  his  reply  to  his 
daughter,  who  apparently  was  extremely  impressed  with  Rhett's 
view,  and  who  was  closer  to  Calhoun's  heart  than  any  living 
creature,  is  by  no  means  a  strong  or  convincing  argument.  When 
he  admitted  that  "We  cannot  and  ought  not  to  live  together 
as  we  are  at  present,"  it  was  no  answer  to  her  claim  (that  it  was 

1  Courier ,  Jan.  30,  1838. 


RHETT'S   RESOLUTION   CONCERNING  ABOLITION      453 

"better  to  part  peaceably  than  to  live  in  the  state  of  indecision  we 
do,")  to  speak  of  the  "difficulty  "  of  separation.1  His  hesitation  did 
credit  to  his  genuine  love  of  the  Union ;  but  when  we  remember  his 
unreserved  declaration  regarding  the  repeal  of  the  Force 
Bill,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  there  was  another 
cause  of  hesitation,  although  Calhoun  was  probably  unaware  of 
it  himself.  He  was,  constitutionally,  unable  to  follow;  he  must 
always  lead.  In  addition  to  all  other  considerations,  we  may 
fairly  conclude  that  to  this  strange  man  there  was  "a  rapture  in 
the  strife  of  factions  that  a  woman's  soul  cannot  conceive  of." 
His  letters,  immediately  following,  indicate  his  lively  personal 
interest  in  the  struggle :  "  Mr.  Clay  is  very  impudent,  and  I  expect 
to  have  a  round  with  him.  ..."  And  again:  "Mr.  Clay  made 
a  very  long  reply,  but  in  the  main  very  feeble  and  personal.  I 
intend  to  give  him  as  good  as  he  sent,  and  so  informed  him 
on  the  conclusion  of  his  speech."  2  While  these  "rounds"  were 
being  fought  out  in  the  Senate,  and  the  entire  country  so  shocked 
by  the  barbarity  of  the  Graves-Cilley  duel,  that  even  John  Lyde 
Wilson  produced  his  "code  duello,"  as  he  said,  in  protest;  while 
the  two  sections  were  straining  apart;  Hayne  was  patiently, 
steadily  and  patriotically  striving  with  the  work  by  which  he 
believed  the  Union  alone  could  be  preserved.  Ably  seconded 
by  C.  G.  Memminger  for  a  time,  and  by  James  Hamilton  and 
Mitchell  King  to  the  bitter  end,  yet  in  the  main,  the  burden  lay 
upon  him.  He  had  weathered  the  panic  of  1837,  amended  the 
charter  and  increased  the  subscriptions.  To  secure  additional 
aid  from  the  State  and  reconcile  the  aggressive  minority  contin- 
ually crying  out  for  the  Georgia  connection,  he  had  purchased 
the  Charleston  and  Hamburg  Road;  but  under  the  continual 
agitation,  it  was  a  trade  with  the  knife  at  the  throat  of  one  of 
the  parties  to  it.     There  were  strong  arguments  in  favor  of  the 

^'Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  391.  2  Ibid.,  pp.  392-393. 


454  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

purchase  itself,  nevertheless.  Doubtless  the  material  could  be 
handled  for  pushing  on  the  work  more  expeditiously  and  cheaply, 
and  the  increasing  volume  of  business  of  a  lengthening  railroad 
might  help  in  its  extension;  but  the  road  had  run  down,  was  not 
entirely  free  from  debt  and  was  purchased  at  a  premium  and  upon 
terms  which,  if  the  stockholders  gave  trouble  about  paying  up 
in  instalments  upon  the  stock  as  called  for,  must  create  almost 
insurmountable  difficulties  for  the  management;  yet,  as  they  had 
subscribed,  it  was  hardly  unreasonable  to  assume  they  meant  to 
pay  when  called  upon  to  do  so.  Hayne,  however,  felt  it  incum- 
bent upon  him  to  place  fairly  before  the  people  of  the  city  of 
Charleston  and  of  the  State  of  South  Carolina  their  vital  interest 
in  the  enterprise.  Addressing  himself  first  to  the  citizens  of 
Charleston,  he  expressed  his  solemn  conviction  that  upon  their 
conduct  depended  the  destinies  of  the  city.  "Communities  like 
individuals,"  he  said,  "are  (under  the  blessings  of  Heaven)  often 
the  architects  of  their  own  fortunes,  and  to  a  certain  extent  may 
be  said  to  control  events.  Charleston  now  stands  in  the  front 
rank  among  the  cities  of  the  South.  With  an  admirable  harbor, 
a  healthful  climate,  a  larger  population  and  a  greater  capital 
than  any  city  on  the  South  Altantic  Coast,  we  have  already  ob- 
tained a  start  in  the  great  race  which  will  insure  us  the  victory, 
if  we  are  only  true  to  ourselves  and  resolve  to  improve  our  advan- 
tages. But  let  us  not  be  deluded  with  the  vain  fancy  that  success 
can  be  secured  without  any  effort.  The  truth  is  that  the  trade 
of  the  West  is  at  this  moment  the  great  object  to  which  the  earnest 
attention  of  the  whole  country  is  directed." 

Showing  that  the  Georgia  State  road  was  intended  to  form  a 
continuous  line  from  Savannah  through  Macon  to  the  Tennessee 
River,  under  State  patronage  and  with  a  bank  already  in  operation  ; 
and  Virginia,  too,  moving,  he  urged  that  South  Carolina  stood  in 
danger  of  being  "cut  off  forever  from  her  fair  share  of  the  com- 


RHETT'S   RESOLUTION   CONCERNING  ABOLITION      455 

merce  of  the  West."  He  claimed  that  the  people  of  Tennessee 
preferred  at  that  time  a  connection  with  Charleston  to  that  with 
any  city  to  the  north  or  south  of  her.  Knoxville,  he  claimed, 
was  nearer  to  Charleston  than  Richmond  by  fifty  miles,  and  one 
hundred  miles  closer  than  she  was  to  Savannah  by  the  Georgia 
State  road.  The  valley  of  the  French  Broad,  he  claimed,  afforded 
a  far  better  route  by  which  to  connect  Knoxville  with  the  ocean  ; 
but  he  impressed  it  upon  his  readers  "  if,  after  all  that  we  have 
said  and  done,  we  should  falter  in  our  course  or  abandon  the  enter- 
prise, our  sister  cities  will  very  soon  establish  those  connections, 
by  which  our  doom  will  be  sealed,  and  we  shall  deserve  our  fate."  1 
After  pressing  argument  upon  argument  on  his  readers  with 
such  force  that  we  find  them  caught  up  and  utilized  by  his  rivals 
in  Virginia  to  supply  their  own  deficiency  in  the  power  of  appeal, 
he  closed  with  the  announcement  that  the  fate  of  the  road  was 
in  their  hands,  and  it  was  for  them  to  determine  whether  the  roll 
of  subscribers  should  "remain  a  proud  memorial  of  their  wisdom 
and  patriotism,  or  a  miserable  record  of  fluctuating  feelings  and 
changeful  purpose  —  a  monument  of  our  glory  or  our  shame."  2 
In  support  of  the  appeal,  the  Courier  published  a  strong  editorial, 
in  which  a  proper  appreciation  appeared  of  the  "able,  patriotic 
and  indefatigable  president,"  to  whose  untiring  efforts  it  declared 
the  existence  of  the  road  was  due.  As  earnest  and  impassioned, 
as  persuasive  and  moving,  as  had  been  Hayne's  appeal  to  the 
citizens  of  Charleston,  it  falls  far  below  his  effort  to  rouse  the 
State,  in  which  he  exhibits  a  grasp  of  public  affairs  and  a  states- 
manlike comprehension  of  existing  facts  and  conditions,  which 
time  has  so  far  verified,  as  to  place  him  beyond  any  man  of  his 
day  in  his  clear  perception  of.  Attention  has  been  directed  to 
the  fact  that  Hayne  was  launched  upon  his  public  career  without 
the  culture  and  training  with  which  many  of  his  contemporaries 

1  Courier,  March  13,  1838.  3  Ibid.,  March  13,  1838. 


456  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

were  blessed,  but  that  one  of  his  most  remarkable  qualities  was 
his  ability  to  gather  information  and  instruction  from  almost 
every  situation  and  every  struggle.  In  his  last  fight  against  the 
tariff  in  the  Senate  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  speech  of 
Ewing  of  Ohio  was  a  more  forcible  reply  to  Hayne's  argument 
than  that  of  the  great  Kentuckian,  who  loomed  so  large  in  the 
public  eye.  In  Hayne's  appeal  to  the  State  of  South  Carolina  we 
realize  that  Hayne  had  pondered  these  arguments  of  Ewing,  and 
had  become  convinced  that  something  beside  the  tariff  was 
responsible  for  the  lagging  progress  of  his  State :  "  South  Carolina," 
he  says,  "  as  a  small  state,  rich  in  her  great  staples  and  commercial 
facilities,  yet  deprived  of  her  natural  advantages  by  the  wasteful 
cultivation  of  her  soil  and  the  state  of  almost  'colonial  vassalage' 
to  which  her  trade  has  been  reduced,  is  now  brought  to  a  condition 
which  calls  for  prompt  and  decisive  measures  to  remove  existing 
evils  and  to  avert  the  still  greater  calamities  with  which  she  is 
threatened.  It  is  impossible  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  truth  or  exclude 
from  our  minds  the  conviction  that  South  Carolina  is  destined 
to  sink  down  from  her  high  and  palmy  state  of  prosperity,  honor 
and  renown  which  she  has  so  long  and  so  proudly  occupied,  unless 
her  sons  shall  avail  themselves  of  the  present  favorable  oppor- 
tunity to  retrieve  her  falling  fortunes.  The  superior  fertility  of 
the  virgin  soils  of  the  new  and  flourishing  states  of  the  South  West 
holds  out  a  temptation  to  emigration  which  nothing  can  counter- 
act but  the  opening  of  fresh  avenues  to  trade  and  new  and  more 
profitable  employment  of  labor  and  capital.  We  have  no  unoc- 
cupied territory  to  which  our  planters  can  repair  from  their  ex- 
hausted fields  to  renovate  their  fortunes.  The  slow  process  of 
restoring  our  worn-out  soils  will  not  be  resorted  to  whilst  on  our 
own  borders  are  found  immense  and  fertile  regions,  so  lately 
acquired  from  the  Indians  in  Georgia  and  Alabama.  What, 
then,  is  left  for  us  ?    We  must  diversify  the  pursuits  of  our  people. 


RHETT'S   RESOLUTION   CONCERNING   ABOLITION      457 

The  opening  of  a  communication  with  the  West  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  Direct  Trade  with  Europe  are  the  only  means,  under 
Heaven,  by  which  this  great  object  can  be  effected.  Much  has 
been  said  as  to  the  necessity  of  establishing  a  system  of  direct 
importation,  and  it  has  been  well  asked  why  the  South,  which 
raises  the  cotton  and  rice  which  is  actually  exchanged  for  the 
European  products  by  which  the  wants  of  so  large  a  proportion 
of  the  Union  are  supplied,  should  not  be  able  to  effect  these  ex- 
changes through  her  own  sea-ports,  by  her  own  merchants  and 
in  her  own  ships?  Ask  these  merchants,  and  they  will  tell  you 
that,  though  these  goods  can  be  brought  to  Charleston  as  cheaply 
as  they  can  to  New  York,  yet  they  are  not  imported  directly, 
because  they  could  not  find  a  market  in  Charleston.  We  have 
been  assured  if  this  difficulty  was  removed  our  direct  importations 
from  Europe  would  at  once  equal  to  our  exports.  But  so  long 
as  we  are  unable  to  forward  these  goods  into  the  interior,  our 
market  for  European  goods  must  be  confined  to  the  supply  of 
our  own  limited  wants.  Look  at  the  present  course  of  the  trade 
between  the  South  and  West.  The  importations  from  Tennessee 
and  Kentucky  into  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  amount  to  millions 
of  dollars,  but  instead  of  their  being  paid  for  in  foreign  goods, 
imported  directly  into  Charleston  and  Savannah,  in  exchange 
for  our  own  cotton  and  rice,  we  pay  for  them  in  gold  and  silver, 
or  in  bills  upon  the  North,  thereby  losing  entirely  the  profits  on 
the  importation  and  greatly  embarrassing  our  merchants  by  the 
operation.  Now  if  we  only  had  the  means  of  transporting  these 
goods  by  a  railroad  to  the  West,  everything  would  be  changed. 
Not  only  would  we  pay  for  Western  productions,  consumed  by 
the  South,  in  foreign  goods  received  in  exchange  for  our  produce, 
but  we  should  also  be  able  to  supply  a  large  portion  of  the  Western 
country  with  all  the  goods  now  obtained  by  them  from  abroad, 
receiving  in  exchange  their  products  to  be  distributed  in  Southern 


458  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

ships  throughout  the  world.  The  truth  is  that  all  our  efforts  to 
establish  a  direct  trade  with  Europe  must  in  a  great  measure  be 
unavailing,  unless  we  can  provide  a  market  in  the  West  for  the 
goods  we  may  import.  Our  Railroad,  with  the  aid  of  the  South 
Western  Railroad  Bank,  will  achieve  for  us  this  important  and 
peaceful  victory."  1 

Close  upon  the  publication  of  this  powerful  and  most  states- 
manlike series  of  papers,  the  breaking  of  ground  at  Columbia  for 
the  beginning  of  the  construction  of  the  branch  to  connect  that 
city  with  the  Charleston  and  Hamburg  Road  was  begun,  and 
upon  that  occasion  Hayne  spoke  with  an  eloquence  never  surpassed 
by  any  effort  of  his  life.  It  was  upon  that  occasion  the  expression 
was  used,  selected  by  Mayor  Courtenay  from  among  all  of  his 
phrases,  to  mark  the  bust  placed  at  the  latter's  instance  in  the 
Council  Chamber  at  Charleston,  forty-four  years  after  Hayne's 
untimely  death  and  some  forty-two  or  three  subsequent  to  the 
magnificent  but  abortive  scheme  of  erecting  a  great  memorial  in 
his  honor.  The  phrase  is  one  well  to  be  considered:  "Next  to 
the  Christian  religion,  I  know  of  nothing  to  be  compared  with  the 
influence  of  a  free,  social  and  commercial  intercourse,  in  softening 
asperities,  removing  prejudices,  extending  knowledge  and  pro- 
moting human  happiness."  2  In  the  same  speech  he  introduces 
a  remark  which  is  calculated  to  throw  much  light  upon  a  subsequent 
correspondence.  "It  is  a  fortunate  circumstance,"  he  says,  "that 
by  the  purchase  of  the  Charleston  Rail  Road  the  means  have  been 
furnished  of  removing  all  local  jealousies  and  reconciling  all 
conflicting  interest;  and  he  must  be  in  heart  an  enemy  to  the 
whole  enterprise  who  is  not  satisfied  with  an  arrangement  so 
well  calculated  to  meet  the  views  and  wishes  of  all." 

From  neighboring  States  came  echoes  of  his  eloquent  appeal, 
the  Richmond  Enquirer  paraphrasing   an   utterance  to  stimulate 

1  Courier,  March  16,  1838.  a  Mercury,  March  21,  1838. 


RHETT'S   RESOLUTION   CONCERNING  ABOLITION      459 

Virginia:  "And  if  we  shall  falter  in  our  course,  we,  too,  will  de- 
serve our  fate."  So  far,  however,  were  the  bulk  of  the  representa- 
tive men  of  South  Carolina  from  being  conscious  or  mindful  of  that 
which  was  mainly  responsible  for  "  the  wasteful "  cultivation  of 
her  soil  and  so  impressed  with  the  immense  benefits  to  be  derived 
from  that  which  Calhoun  considered  as  "the  best  substratum  of 
population  in  the  world,"  that  at  the  Augusta  meeting,  in  favor  of 
direct  trade,  held  about  this  time,  there  was  put  on  record  an 
utterance  which  to-day  seems  almost  archaic  —  "  the  great  truth 
will  be  seen  and  felt  and  acknowledged,  that  of  all  the  social  condi- 
tions of  man,  the  most  favorable  to  the  development  of  the  cardinal 
virtues  of  the  heart  and  the  noblest  faculties  of  the  soul,  to 
the  promotion  of  private  happiness  and  public  prosperity,  is  that 
of  slave-holding  communities,  under  free  political  institutions  — 
a  truth  hardly  yet  understood  among  ourselves,  but  which  the 
future  history  of  these  States  is,  we  trust,  destined  to  illustrate."  ' 
It  was  certainly  a  truth  not  thoroughly  understood  by  Haynein  18 18, 
or  even  as  late  as  1827;  while  in  1833  he  seemed  to  confine  his 
declaration  to  the  discovery  announced  that,  from  a  military  stand- 
point, the  slave  States  were  strengthened  instead  of  being  weakened, 
as  he  had  evidently  thought  up  to  that  time  they  were  by  the  in- 
stitution. Meanwhile  the  shares  for  the  Southwestern  Bank 
being  all  promptly  subscribed  for  and  other  arrangements  com- 
pleted, the  Governor  of  Tennessee,  in  behalf  of  that  State,  subscribed 
for  $650,000  worth  of  stock  in  the  Road,  bringing  Tennessee's 
subscription  up  to  and  over  the  million-dollar  mark,  with  regard 
to  which  the  Knoxville  Register  declared  that  Hayne's  address  was 
of  immense  value;  and,  in  addition  that  the  shares  in  the  stock  of  the 
Road  had  been  disposed  of  at  a  premium  of  6  per  cent.2  But  as  if 
to  test  the  endurance  of  the  great  soul  animating  his  fellow-citizens 
to  this  supreme  effort,  the  Fates  now  intervened,  and  Charleston 

1  Courier,  April  9,  1838.  2  Ibid.,  April  16,  1838. 


460  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

was  devastated  by  a  fire  involving  a  loss  of  $3,000,000  of  property 
and  many  lives.1  To  the  shrivelling  effects  of  this  conflagration 
upon  the  spirits  of  the  strongest  and  most  determined  men  of  the 
community,  a  letter  from  J.  L.  Petigru  bears  witness :  "  The  scene 
before  us  at  this  time  beats  everything  in  the  way  of  moralizing 
that  the  Pulpit  or  the  tragic  stage  can  do.  Charleston  may  be  said 
to  be  no  more.  The  desolation  that  reigns  in  the  busiest,  liveliest 
streets,  the  rude  columns  that  once  were  chimneys  standing 
as  thick  as  trees  in  the  forest  and  the  piles  of  rubbish  everywhere 
over  the  ground  in  most  unsightly  disorder,  are  miserable  memorials 
of  our  fallen  state.  .  .  .  There  is  no  knowing  what  will  be  done. 
Wise  and  vigorous  counsels  are  necessary  to  keep  the  place  from 
losing  the  very  name  of  town  and  sinking  into  a  village.  We  all 
think  it  was  a  judgment ;  but  disagree'  for  what  it  was  sent.  I 
think  it  was  the  boastful,  threatening  and  insolent  convention  at 
Augusta,  where  we  were  making  such  ridiculous  promises  of  what 
we  were  going  to  do."  2  The  fire  was  a  conflagration  and  a  great 
and  disastrous  blow  to  the  city ;  but  the  map  of  the  burnt  district, 
while  indicating  that  the  heart  and  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
whole  of  the  city  was  destroyed,  does  not  reveal  a  condition  quite 
as  desperate  as  Mr.  Petigru' s  letter  would  lead  one  to  infer;  while, 
with  regard  to  his  strictures  on  the  Augusta  Convention,  it  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  he  was  about  the  last  of  the  Federalists.  As 
was  getting  to  be  usual  in  all  difficulties,  the  first  thing  done  was 
the  placing  of  Hayne  at  the  head  of  a  committee  to  devise  the  means 
of  getting  things  into  shape,  and  in  a  month  such  progress  had  been 
made  that  merchants,  with  great  pluck,  were  publishing  notices 
that  by  the  fall  they  would  be  ready  to  do  business,  and  Hayne 
was  free  once  more  to  bend  all  his  energies  on  the  railroad. 

1  Courier,  April  27-30,  1838. 

2  Unpublished  correspondence  of  J.  L.  Petigru. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

HAMILTON'S  REVOLT.  CALHOUN  CONSULTS  WITH  VAN  BUREN'S 
SECRETARY  OF  WAR  AS  TO  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  THOMPSON  AND 
LEG  ARE.      THE  QUARREL  BETWEEN   CALHOUN   AND   THOMPSON 

The  close  of  the  congressional  session  did  not  find  Calhoun  in 
that  buoyant  frame  of  mind  which  his  letter  to  his  daughter  at  the 
outset  had  indicated,  and  with  some  bitterness  he  wrote  to  James 
Edward  Calhoun,  under  date  of  April  21,  1838:  "  Preston  and 
Thompson  have  done  much  mischief  —  more  than  they  can  ever 
repair  if  they  live  a  hundred  years."  1  That  these  two  men  had, 
up  to  that  difference,  been  his  stanchest  supporters,  contributing 
in  no  small  degree  to  that  immense  power  he  wielded  in  the  State, 
seemed  to  have  passed  altogether  from  his  memory,  and  to  the  most 
eminent  of  all  his  opponents  in  the  State  in  the  nullification 
struggle,  now  Van  Buren's  Secretary  of  War,  he  wrote  in  July  of 
the  same  year  from  Fort  Hill :  "lam  glad  to  inform  you  that  there 
is  opposition  in  this  district  to  General  Thompson,"  and  urged 
Mr.  Poinsett  to  stir  up  opposition  against  Thompson,  in  the 
mountains,  and  against  Legare,  in  Charleston,  and  to  see  that 
Gresham  and  Norton  of  Pickens  "  should  go  right."  2 

Since  the  elimination  of  Senator  Smith  from  the  politics  of 
South  Carolina,  most  of  Calhoun's  opponents  had  fought  him  with 
bated  breath,  even  the  doughty  Petigru  dealing  more  in  covert 
allusion  and  innuendo  than  direct  attack;  but  not  so  James 
Hamilton.     Having  parted  with  his  old  chieftain,  Hamilton  struck 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  396.  9  Ibid.,  pp.  397-398. 

461 


462  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

at  him  openly  and  fearlessly.  "Until  Mr.  Calhoun  consented  to 
become  the  foster  father  of  this  treasury  offspring,"  he  rashly  as- 
serted, at  the  extra  session  of  the  Legislature,  "  there  were  not  ten 
individuals  in  the  State  with  whom  the  unpromising  bantling  ob- 
tained countenance."  In  this  Hamilton  was  wrong;  but  in  that 
with  which  he  followed  it,  there  was  wisdom.  "  Can  we  not  allow 
our  State,"  he  cried,  "  ne  moment  of  repose?  Must  she  pass  the 
verge  of  one  agitation  to  be  hurried  into  another  ?  Can  she  never 
breathe  for  one  instant  in  the  temperate  zone?"  *  The  Unionists 
would  have  hardly  been  human  if  they  had  kept  silent,  and  James 
S.  Smith  replied  with  spirit  and,  through  the  Unionists  who 
flocked  to  his  standard,  Calhoun  more  than  made  good  his  losses, 
and  accordingly  Hamilton  found  himself  in  a  minority  of  seven  or 
nine  on  the  vote  upon  the  resolutions  which  he  had  declared 
"were  levelled  at  one  of  our  Senators." 

The  attempts  to  drag  Hayne  into  the  controversy  were  very 
properly  rebuked  by  the  Mercury,  which  declared:  "General 
Hayne' s  position  is  as  it  should  be.  We  shall  not  copy  the  evil  ex- 
ample of  the  Telescope,  in  attempting  to  drag  into  politics  a  man 
whose  status  requires  him  rather  to  moderate,  conciliate  and  unite 
all  in  support  of  the  great  enterprise  which  he  directs."  2 

How  fiercely  this  flame  was  burning  is  evinced  by  some  of  the 
toasts  of  the  day.  At  a  Pickens  district  celebration,  strongly  for 
Calhoun,  we  read:  UW.  C.  Preston:  An  alien  by  birth  and  a 
traitor  to  the  State  of  his  adoption.  In  him  have  we  been  deceived, 
but  will  never  be  again."  And  at  Abbeville:  "Legare,  Campbell 
and  Thompson,  recreants  to  the  South,  etc."  "  W.  C.  Preston :  He 
has  betrayed  the  trust  reposed  in  him."  3  In  addition  to  those  fran- 
tic fulminations,  a  whack  was  made  at  the  railroad,  the  bank  and 
the  loan  to   Charleston  to  rebuild,   by  the  following:    "South 

1  Courier ,  June  12,  1838.  2  Mercury,  July  17,  1838. 

8  Courier,  July  17,  1838. 


HAMILTON'S   REVOLT  463 

Carolina  Legislature:  May  it  be  confined  within  its  legitimate 
sphere,  and  guarantees  and  loans  for  corporations  be  discon- 
tinued." 

In  the  midst  of  his  disconsolate  Unionist  friends,  grieving  over 
the  impending  defeat  of  Legare,  Richard  Yeadon  alone  took  a 
gloomy  satisfaction  in  impressing  upon  them  their  political  folly 
in  presenting  Legare  to  the  opposition  as  a  weapon  with  which  to 
slaughter  Pinckney,  the  Courier  declaring:  "Mr.  Pinckney  was 
proscribed  because  he  had  the  resolution  on  the  French  and 
Abolition  questions  to  resist  the  dictation  of  a  Senatorial  colleague ; 
and  Preston,  Legare,  Campbell  and  Thompson  are  threatened  with 
a  like  fate."  *  The  friends  of  Preston  in  Columbia  did  all  in  their 
power  to  placate  Calhoun.  They  invited  him  to  the  Preston  barbe- 
cue; but  Calhoun  declined  in  a  quiet,  dignified  letter  which,  never- 
theless, accentuated  the  difference  between  Preston  and  himself, 
reciting  his  inability,  in  consequence,  to  appear  at  a  festivity  arranged 
to  indorse  Preston.  The  committee  gained  nothing  by  extending 
the  invitation,  and  Calhoun  wrote  Duff  Green:  "The  Preston 
dinner  is  considered  a  failure."  In  the  same  letter  he  exhibited 
great  bitterness  against  Thompson,  alluding  to  "his  art  and  duplic- 
ity." 2  Out  of  all  these  bickerings  Hayne  resolutely  kept,  winning 
the  commendation  of  both  factions ;  complimented  at  the  Preston 
dinner  in  the  toast:  "The  Louisville,  Cincinnati  and  Charleston 
Railroad :  An  enterprise  worthy  of  the  devotion  of  such  a  man  as 
Robert  Y.  Hayne;  "  3  and  at  the  dinner  to  R.  B.  Rhett,  where  he 
was  directly  toasted:  "Robert  Y.  Hayne:  His  untiring  efforts  in 
behalf  of  the  Louisville,  Cincinnati  and  Charleston  Railroad  de- 
clare to  the  world  that  his  patriotism  requires  not  the  excitements 
of  power  to  maintain  its  existence."  4  Beyond  the  limits  of  the 
State  attention  was  turning  to  him  even  more  strikingly,  and  by  the 

1  Ibid.,  July  20,  1838.  3  Courier,  Aug.  6,  1838. 

2  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  398.  *  Ibid.,  Sept.  11,  1838. 


464  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

Columbus  Enquirer  of  Georgia  he  was  named  for  the  Presidency 
of  the  United  States,  with  John  Tyler  of  Virginia  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent.1 The  feeling  which  Calhoun  entertained  for  his  former  inti- 
mate, Thompson,  had  drawn  him  into  a  somewhat  unfortunate 
imbroglio,  out  of  which  Thompson  emerged  unscathed;  while  it 
required  all  of  Calhoun's  power  in  the  use  of  words  to  extricate 
himself  from  an  awkward  situation.  The  fairest  way  to  present 
the  matter  would  be  by  the  two  letters  entire,  but  Calhoun's  is  so 
lengthy  that  a  synopsis  of  the  salient  points  must  suffice.  The 
trouble  arose  over  Calhoun's  support  of  the  divorce  of  bank  and 
State  at  a  dinner  in  his  honor,  on  which  occasion  he  had  character- 
ized Thompson's  remarks  in  stronger  language  than  that  gentle- 
man was  willing  to  permit.  Thompson's  letter  to  Calhoun  was 
dated  August  30,  1838,  from  Greenville,  and  was  as  follows :  "  Sir : 
In  the  course  of  my  remarks  on  Tuesday  last,  I  stated  that  the 
demand  of  the  public  dues  in  gold  and  silver  only  had  first  been  pre- 
sented in  Congress  as  a  distinct  and  specific  proposition  by  Colonel 
Benton.  You  interrupted  me,  and  said  that  my  statement  was 
false  (and,  I  understand,  added  that  I  knew  it  to  be  so) .  This  oc- 
curred at  a  dinner  given  to  you,  and  I  could  therefore  do  no  more 
than  say  that  such  language  was  unprovoked,  and  that  I  could  not 
and  would  not  submit  to  it  from  any  man.  I  had  hoped  that  when 
the  excitement  of  the  moment  had  passed  away,  it  would  have  been 
withdrawn.  As  it  has  not,  I  have  no  alternative  left  but  to  en- 
quire whether  you  intended  to  use  the  language  attributed  to  you, 
and  whether  or  not  I  am  to  regard  it  as  retracted  or  withdrawn?  " 
To  this  Calhoun  replied  from  Fort  Hill,  September  2  :  "  Sir :  You 
commence  by  giving  your  understanding  of  the  occurrence  on 
Tuesday  last  before  you  ask  the  question  to  which  you  desire  an 
answer.  I  shall  follow  your  example."  Then  follows  a  lengthy 
statement  which  the  writer  declares  was   the  occasion  that  "I 

1  Courier,  Aug.  23,  1838. 


HAMILTON'S   REVOLT  465 

drew  the  inference  I  did.  .  .  .  But  I  now  understand  from  your 
note  that  in  this  I  was  mistaken.  ..."  After  some  questions 
as  to  Thompson's  intentions,  the  conclusion,  however,  is:  "It  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  the  inference  I  drew,  and  the  expression  to 
which  you  object,  was  drawn  on  the  supposition  that  you  had 
directly  contradicted,  in  unqualified  terms,  my  assertion  .  .  .  and  of 
course  the  expression  is  not  applicable  to  the  more  restricted  prop- 
osition which  I  now  understand  you  had  made."  *  In  the  same 
issue  of  the  Courier  in  which  the  settlement  of  this  difficulty  was 
published,  appeared  an  account  of  the  flattering  reception  accorded 
Hayne  in  Lexington,  Kentucky,  at  a  meeting  at  which  Henry  Clay, 
Vice-President  R.  M.  Johnson  and  other  distinguished  men  were 
present.  The  affairs  of  the  road  seemed  very  bright  and  cheerful, 
but  the  president's  report,  published  soon  after,  in  which  again  he 
alludes  to  that  object  which  was  to  him  the  greatest  of  all,  viz. : 
"The  great  object  is  to  break  down  the  mountain  barriers  which 
separate  two  entire  sections  and  to  bind  them  firmly  together  in  the 
bonds  of  a  free,  social  and  commercial  intercourse,  the  only  sure 
foundation  of  a  perpetual  union,"  2  indicated,  nevertheless, by  what 
a  narrow  margin  success  had  been  snatched  from  failure.  To  the 
great  bank  95,000  shares  had  been  subscribed,  and  arrangements 
had  been  made  to  bring  from  Europe  so  much  of  the  loan  effected 
by  Hamilton  on  the  credit  of  the  State,  in  specie,  as  would  suffice 
to  put  the  bank  in  operation  without  embarrassment  to  other  inter- 
ests ;  but  the  banking  privileges  which  had  been  granted  were  upon 
the  express  condition  that  subscriptions  to  the  road  amounting  in 
October,  1837,  to  $5,300,000  should  be  increased  by  December  31, 
1837,  to  $8,ooo,ooo.3  By  the  subscription  of  the  State  of  Tennessee, 
the  amount  was  raised  to  $5,950,000,  which  left  $2,050,000  to  be 
obtained  in  three  weeks,  and  this  could  not  possibly  be  obtained  in 
any  other  way  than  by  the  purchase  of  the  Hamburg  Road  at  the 

1  Ibid.,  Sept.  12,  1838.  2  Ibid.,  Oct.  13,  1838.  3  Ibid. 

2  H 


466  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

round  price  paid  for  it,  coupled  with  the  condition  that  stock- 
holders should  subscribe  for  20,000  shares,  the  first  payments  of 
which  were  to  be  deducted  from  purchase  money,  while  the  $50,000 
still  due,  to  obtain  the  great  loan,  was  subscribed  by  the  city  of 
Charleston.  The  plan  was  to  extend  the  main  trunk  to  Columbia, 
thence  by  Butt  Mountain  Gap  into  North  Carolina,  through  the 
French  Broad  valley  to  Knoxville.  Considering  the  resources  for 
carrying  on  this  work,  it  was  announced  that  the  most  which  could 
be  reasonably  hoped  for  the  present  was  the  extension  of  the 
branch  destined  to  be  the  main  stem  to  Columbia  and  the  payment 
of  what  was  the  price  of  the  Hamburg  Road,  actually  $2,300,000, 
$700,000  due  the  banks  and  $1 ,600,000  to  the  road.  To  put  the  road 
in  thorough  order,  $300,000  was  necessary.  Cash  in  hand  from 
instalments  and  first  loan  was  $1,150,000,  which  it  was  proposed 
to  utilize  as  follows:  $350,000  to  banks,  $180,000  for  repairs, 
leaving  $620,000  to  be  applied  to  second  instalment  $800,000 
due  on  purchase  money  of  Hamburg  Road,  which,  with  interest 
charges  $100,000,  in  all  amounted  to  $900,000,  leaving  a  deficit 
of  nearly  $300,000,  which  could  only  be  met  by  third  instalment 
or  temporary  loan.  By  utilizing  the  10,000  shares  of  the  Hamburg 
Road  pledged  for  this  second  instalment  due  the  vendors,  the 
president  hoped,  as  they  were  valued  at  par,  $1,000,000,  $500,000 
could  be  borrowed.  From  the  third  instalment  on  the  stock  he  ex- 
pected $300,000  and  from  second  guaranteed  State  loan  $1,000,000. 
With  the  second  payment  to  banks,  $350,000,  and  repayment  of 
loan  of  $500,000,  releasing  stock,  there  would  be  in  hand  $450,000 
with  which  to  push  on  the  road  and  meet  the  instalment  due 
January  1,  1840,  for  the  purchase  of  the  Hamburg  Road,  by  which 
date  two  more  instalments  of  the  stock  of  the  Louisville,  Cincinnati 
and  Charleston  must  be  collected.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
an  unreasonable  scheme;  but  of  course  it  was  dependent  upon 
those  who  had  subscribed,  paying  an  amount  which  would  then  be 


HAMILTON'S   REVOLT  467 

one-quarter  of  the  whole  of  the  obligation  assumed,  and  Hayne  had 
every  right  to  assume  that  they  would  respond  to  their  obligation, 
if  for  no  other  reason,  than  because  these  stockholders  had  promptly 
subscribed  for  $9,500,000  worth  of  shares  in  the  bank.  Those 
under  obligation  to  pay  at  some  time  over  seven  millions  of  dollars, 
subscribing  for  more  than  nine  million  more,  certainly  could  be 
expected  to  meet  of  the  first,  in  a  year,  six  or  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand, otherwise  their  subscriptions  meant  nothing.  In  the  year 
and  nine  months  in  which  he  had  been  president,  Hayne  had 
raised  the  capital  stock  of  the  company  from  $4,000,000  to 
$8,000,000,  $2,000,000  more  than  the  amount  with  which  Cal- 
houn had  asserted,  just  before  Hayne's  election,  the  road  could 
be  carried  from  Charleston  to  the  Ohio  by  the  Tuckaseege 
route,  through  North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Kentucky.  Cal- 
houn had  then  thought  that  on  a  fair  survey,  revealing  which  was 
the  best  route,  the  Tuckaseege  or  the  French  Broad,  the  whole 
State  would  acquiesce  —  "  Even  the  selfish  will  be  ashamed  to 
object."  He  was  mistaken.  The  survey  had  so  thoroughly  de- 
monstrated the  impracticability  of  the  Tuckaseege  and  the  superior- 
ity of  the  French  Broad,  that  he  himself  was  forced  to  admit  he 
had,  in  some  degree,  been  mistaken ;  but  so  far  from  any  one  being 
ashamed  to  object,  every  objector  had  incontinently  abandoned  the 
Tuckaseege  route  and  harked  back  to  the  junction  with  Georgia, 
and  of  these  Calhoun  was  himself  the  chief.  The  purchase  of  the 
Hamburg  Road,  so  far  from  satisfying  these,  simply  was  utilized 
for  the  purpose  of  discrediting  the  French  Broad  route.  The 
publication  of  a  table  disclosing  the  earnings  of  the  Hamburg 
Road,  in  the  report  of  the  president,  revealed  a  steady  growth. 
The  number  of  passengers  transported  and  fares  collected  had,  in 
four  years,  doubled.  The  amount  received  for  carriage  of  the 
mails  and  the  number  of  bales  of  cotton  increased  by  more  than 
50  per  cent.     The  gross  earnings  doubled,  and  representing  14  per 


468  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

cent  on  the  purchase  price.1  Put  in  thorough  order  and  with  the 
addition  of  the  fork  moving  to  Columbia,  once  paid  for,  there  was 
good  reason  to  believe  the  road  could  be  made  to  push  its  way 
across  the  State,  even  if  slowly.  But  with  this  eternal  war  upon  it 
from  within,  it  could  never  hope  to  succeed,  and  those  who  conducted 
this  war  upon  it  were  in  the  main  responsible  for  the  fact  that  it 
did  finally  fail.  A  new  assailant  now  appeared.  The  name 
"Many  Stockholders"  having  been  shown  to  be  absurd,  the  critic 
now  conducting  the  attack  assumed  the  more  euphemistic  title  — 
"Friend  to  his  Country."  This  correspondent  did  not  exhibit, 
nor  was  it  necessary  that  he  should  display,  any  great  degree  of 
intelligence.  Perseverance  and  determination  are  effective  in 
destructive  efforts,  and  these  he  had.  The  enterprise  was  one  de- 
pendent upon  the  maintenance  of  confidence,  and  if  that  could  be 
shaken,  it  must  fail.  In  eight  heavy,  lengthy  pieces,  abounding 
in  glaring  misstatements,  preposterous  arguments,  unsupported 
assertions  and  gloomy  forebodings,  "Friend  to  his  Country"  gave 
the  reasons  why  he  and  others,  who  were  under  a  certain  pecuniary 
obligation  to  contribute  to  an  enterprise,  should  be  freed  from  that 
obligation.  His  intentions  were  probably  the  best;  but  the  eight 
articles  with  which  he  hammered  the  enterprise  for  a  month,  in  the 
light  of  facts  and  the  replies  at  the  time,  are  scarcely  to  his  credit. 
The  statement  that,  in  capitalizing  the  road,  Charleston  would  be 
drained  of  $12,000,000,  might  be  excused,  although  it  is  difficult 
to  understand  how  Charleston  could  lose  more  than  she  put 
in;  but  the  statement  that  all  of  Kentucky's  subscription  had 
been  withdrawn,  had  as  a  basis  to  rest  on,  only  the  fact  that  the 
subscription  from  Covington,  in  Kentucky,  in  the  neighborhood 
of  a  third  of  the  whole,  had  been  released  for  the  avowed  purpose 
of  permitting  it  to  be  utilized  for  the  carrying  on  of  the  road  from 
Lexington  to  Covington  on  the  Ohio,  after  the  amendment  to  the 

1  Courier,  Sept.  12,  1838. 


HAMILTON'S   REVOLT  469 

charter,  which  ended  the  main  road  at  Lexington,  Kentucky.  This 
was  careless,  but  when  the  subscriptions  of  Tennessee,  over  a 
million  of  dollars,  were  asserted  to  be  less  than  a  third  of  this  sum, 
the  error  was  astonishing.  The  bald  statement  that  "the  country 
from  the  mountains  through  the  whole  of  Buncombe  County, 
North  Carolina,  equal  in  length  to  and  adjoining  the  section  we 
have  just  been  considering,  has  not  a  trade  or  passengers,  nor  can 
ever  have,  to  pay  $500  income  on  any  road  whatever,"  was  an 
empty  utterance,  worth  nothing ;  but  the  inquiry  which  seemed  to 
admit  in  advance  the  impossibility  of  the  South  competing  with  the 
North,  was  such  an  admission  of  inferiority  as  to  unfit  the  writer  for 
the  position  of  critic.  "  Can  you,  with  your  Southern  habits,  stand 
a  competition  with  cool,  persevering  and  determined  Northern 
habits,  and  this  on  their  own  ground?"  was  certainly  strange 
language  to  address  to  those  who,  for  a  decade  and  more,  had  been 
asseverating  that  the  repeal  of  the  tariff  of  abominations  was  all 
that  they  asked  for  —  a  fair  field  and  no  favor.  But  addressed  to 
those  who  had  built  the  then  longest  railway  in  the  world,  and  one 
of  the  few  ever  built  within  the  estimate,  it  indicated  an  utter 
inability  to  appreciate  the  proved  capacity  of  his  own  people.1 

In  the  fall  elections,  Hugh  Swinton  Legare  was  overwhelmingly 
beaten  by  Holmes  for  Congress,  and  Calhoun  admitted  that  he 
had  interested  himself  to  assist  in  this  result,  in  concert  with  the 
Secretary  of  War  in  Van  Buren's  cabinet.2  But  all  his  efforts  to 
overthrow  Thompson  were  vain,  the  latter  being  returned  by  a 
majority  of  1025.  At  the  fall  meeting  of  the  Direct  Trade  Con- 
vention at  Augusta,  J.  H.  Hammond  moved  to  erase  that  portion 
of  the  address  of  the  president  of  the  convention  which  recom- 
mended the  clothing  of  railroads  with  banking  privileges,  which 
motion  to  erase  was  supported  by  J.  A.  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina 
and  Longstreet  of  Georgia,  but  opposed  by  Patrick  Noble,   Ker 

1  Mercury,  Oct.  9,  1838,  et  seq.  2  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  407. 


470  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Boyce,  B.  F.  Dunkin  and  I.  E.  Holmes  of  South  Carolina  and 
J.  M.  Berrien  of  Georgia,  and  failed.1  A  day  later  the  Courier 
alludes  to  "a  writer  in  the  Mercury  laboring  to  destroy  the  con- 
fidence of  our  citizens  in  the  great  enterprise, "  2  and  almost  con- 
temporaneously with  the  publication  of  "Friend  to  his  Country's " 
last  article,  appears  the  date  of  Calhoun's  letter  of  resignation  from 
the  directorship  of  the  great  Western  Road. 

1  Courier,  Oct.  19,  1838.  a  Ibid.,  Oct.  20,  1838. 


CHAPTER   IX 

CALHOUN  RESIGNS  FROM  THE  DIRECTORSHIP  OF  THE  LOUISVILLE, 
CHARLESTON  AND  CINCINNATI  RAILROAD.  HIS  TWO  LETTERS 
CONSIDERED.      HAYNE'S    LETTER,    WHICH    INTERVENED 

Two  letters  from  Calhoun  in  reference  to  this  resignation  ap- 
pear. The  first  is  dated  October  28,  1838,  the  second  and  more 
important  one,  November  17,  in  reply  to  a  letter  from  Hayne, 
urging  him  to  reconsider,  and  making  an  argument  which  Calhoun 
attempts  to  meet.  The  first  letter  is  as  follows:  "My  dear  Sir: 
Enclosed  you  have  my  resignation  of  my  place  in  the  direction  of 
the  Charleston  and  Cincinnati  Railroad  Company.  In  addition 
to  the  reason  which  I  have  assigned  in  my  letter  of  resignation, 
and  which  of  itself  is  ample,  I  feel  bound  to  say  to  you,  in  candour, 
that  there  is  another  and  a  decided  reason  with  me.  I  see  by  the 
last  report  enough  to  satisfy  me  that  it  is  resolved  to  carry  the  road 
through  by  the  French  Broad  route.  I  have  no  doubt  of  your 
sincere  and  deep  conviction  in  its  favor,  but  as  deep  as  yours  is  for 
it,  mine  is  no  less  deep  and  sincere  against  it.  The  more  I  reflect, 
the  more  thorough  is  my  conviction  of  its  complete  and  disastrous 
failure,  should  it  be  attempted ;  and  thus  thinking,  I  cannot  bring 
my  mind  to  continue  to  occupy  a  place  in  the  direction  and  share 
in  the  responsibility  of  a  measure  which  my  judgment  cannot 
approve.  But  at  the  same  time,  as  the  route  is  resolved  on,  you 
have  my  best  wishes  for  its  success.  No  one  would  rejoice  more 
than  myself  to  find  in  the  end  that  you  were  right,  and  that  I  was 
mistaken.     I  believe  the  success  of  a  connection  of  the  West  is 

471 


472  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

of  the  last  importance  to  us  politically  and  commercially.  I,  as 
you  know,  was  among  the  first  to  suggest  and  second  it  with  all 
my  zeal,  and  my  opinion  remains  unchanged.  But  as  important 
as  I  consider  the  successful  execution  of  the  project,  in  the  same 
degree  do  I  consider  its  failure  as  disastrous  every  way  to  the 
State.  I  do  verily  believe  that  Charleston  has  more  advantages 
in  her  position  for  the  Western  trade  than  any  city  on  the  Atlantic, 
but  to  develop  them  we  ought  to  look  to  the  Tennessee  instead  of 
the  Ohio,  and  much  further  West  than  Cincinnati  or  Lexington. 
With  all  the  lights  I  have,  there  are  two  routes  by  all  comparison 
superior  to  all  others;  the  one  through  Georgia  to  Ross's  landing 
or  thereabouts,  and  the  other  by  Savannah  River  from  Hamburgh 
to  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation  on  the  Little  Tennessee.  If 
I  am  not  mistaken,  steam  navigation  might  be  brought  by  the  latter 
within  ioo  miles  or  much  less  between  the  Eastern  and  Western 
waters  for  the  fourth  part  the  expense  which  the  projected  route  by 
the  French  Broad  would  cost ;  and  that  it  would  not  cost  half  the 
sum  to  bring  a  ton  weight  by  that  route  to  Charleston,  even  from 
Cincinnati  or  Pittsburg,  as  it  will  by  the  French  Broad  Railway 
if  the  navigation  of  the  Tennessee  should  be  improved,  as  it  will, 
for  steam  navigation.  I  throw  out  these  suggestions  not,  of  course, 
to  influence  your  judgment,  which  seems  to  be  deliberately  made 
up  in  favor  of  the  French  Broad  route,  but  simply  as  indicating  the 
state  of  my  own  mind;  and  from  which  you  will  see  it  would  be 
doing  injustice  to  myself  to  remain  longer  in  the  direction.  Let 
me  say  to  you  in  conclusion,  both  as  a  friend  to  yourself  and  the 
Road,  not  to  move  beyond  Columbia  till  it  is  ascertained  what  is 
the  result  of  the  Georgia  route."  *  By  itself  this  letter  reads  well; 
but  when  we  attempt  to  reconcile  it  with  other  letters  by  the  same 
author,  not  so  well.  If  there  was  " ample  scope  for  both"  roads, 
as  he  stated  to  Williams  in  1835,  when  failing  to  convince  him,  then, 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  pp.  411-412. 


CALHOUN   RESIGNS   FROM   DIRECTORSHIP  473 

of  the  superiority  of  the  Georgia  route  and,  if  the  great  point  was 
"that  rivalry  and  conflict  should  not  be  permitted  to  defeat  the 
grand  design  of  uniting  the  two  sections,"  why  should  he  now 
abandon  that  which  he  had  associated  himself  with  for  nearly  two 
years  ?  Had  he  not  urged  his  friends  in  1836  to  subscribe  to  the 
stock  in  the  road,  when  he  thought  he  had  found  a  route  which 
would,  with  $6,000,000,  be  easily  carried  to  the  Ohio?  Had  he 
not  urged  it  upon  Patrick  Noble  that  this  route  and  the  French 
Broad  should  be  surveyed  and  the  best  selected  when  "even  the 
selfish  would  be  ashamed  to  object"?  Yet  here  he  was  declaring 
that  justice  to  himself  would  not  permit  him  to  continue  a  director, 
and  that,  when  surveys,  conducted  by  a  man  in  whose  ability  and 
integrity  he  firmly  believed,  had  established  the  superiority  of  the 
route,  which,  however,  was  not  the  one  which  he,  Calhoun,  thought 
was  the  best.  He  had  been  on  the  Board  a  year  and  nine  months, 
during  which  period  he  admits  that  he  could  not  get  a  man  in 
Charleston  to  agree  with  him  about  the  Georgia  route,  and  where 
everybody  but  himself  and  some  anonymous  writers  were  for  the 
French  Broad,  even  Colonel  Gadsden,  who  advocated  the  Georgia 
route,  later,  having,  as  engineer,  represented  the  excellencies  of 
the  French  Broad;  yet  everything,  he  advised  now,  should  stop 
until  it  was  seen  what  was  the  result  of  the  Georgia  route,  a  route 
he  had  assisted,  although  supposed  connected  with  the  opposing 
road.  Under  date  of  November  1,  1838,  Hayne  replied  to  this 
letter  in  one  which,  while  powerfully  argumentative,  is  even  more 
marked  by  its  firmness.  There  is  an  appeal  to  the  close  personal 
relations,  to  the  political  obligations  due  him  from  Calhoun;  but 
it  is  a  thoroughly  manly  letter,  and  in  it  there  is  a  note  of  sternness 
which  almost  indicates  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  those  rela- 
tions to  be  retained  or  his  belief  in  Calhoun  to  remain,  if  that  ap- 
peal should  be  refused.  The  letter  is  as  follows:  "My  dear  sir: 
I  have  just  received  your  letter  resigning  your  office  as  Director  in 


474  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

our  R.  R.  Co.,  with  the  private  letter  which  accompanies  it.  I 
regret  extremely  the  view  of  this  matter  which  you  have  taken. 
At  every  period  of  my  life  it  has  afforded  me  great  pain  to  differ 
from  you,  and  it  is  peculiarly  painful  to  differ  on  a  subject  in 
relation  to  which  your  hearty  cooperation  is  so  essential  to  prevent 
that  failure  which  we  both  agree  will  be  so  disastrous  in  its  conse- 
quences. I  had  hoped  that  the  measures  adopted  and  the  situation 
in  which  we  have  been  placed  by  the  Legislatures  of  the  several 
States  would  have  removed  all  grounds  for  any  difference  of  opinion 
as  to  the  measures  now  to  be  pursued ;  and  I  cannot  persuade  my- 
self that  if  you  will  calmly  review  the  whole  subject,  read  care- 
fully the  documents  which  I  now  send  you,  and  then  ask  yourself 
what  ought  to  be  done  ?  that  it  will  be  possible  for  you  to  withhold 
your  valuable  support  from  us.  I  ask  it,  at  all  events,  as  a  debt  due 
to  me  on  the  score  of  long-tried  personal  and  political  relations 
and  duty  which  you  owe  to  the  State,  that  will  look  at  the  question 
in  the  aspect  in  which  I  shall  now  present,  and  then  say  whether 
we  cannot  find  in  the  present  situation  and  policy  of  the  Company 
some  common  ground  on  which  we  may  both  stand,  and  move  on 
hereafter  steadily  and  harmoniously  together.  When  the  proposi- 
tion was  originally  made  for  a  connection  by  Rail  Road  between 
Charleston  and  the  West,  no  particular  route  was  designated  by 
us.  It  is  true  that  the  invitation  came  from  Cincinnati,  but  the 
citizens  of  Charleston,  in  responding  to  that  invitation,  carefully 
avoided  committing  themselves  on  that  point.  In  their  'proceed- 
ings' (a  copy  of  which  I  send  for  your  perusal)  they  left  the  proper 
route  to  be  determined  by  a  consultation  among  all  the  States 
concerned,  and  on  an  examination  of  the  proper  route  by  skilful 
engineers.  Colonels  Gadsden  and  Brisbane  and  Mr.  Holmes  were 
employed  in  making  those  examinations,  and  reported  decidedly 
in  favor  of  the  route  by  the  French  Broad  River  as  affording  a  passage 
for  a  Rail  Road  'unexampled  in  the  topography  of  the  world.'     I 


CALHOUN   RESIGNS   FROM   DIRECTORSHIP  475 

send  you  the  documents,  showing  their  decided  preference  of  this 
over  all  other  known  routes.  The  Knoxville  convention  followed, 
where  300  delegates  assembled,  representing  nine  States,  including 
55  from  the  State  of  Georgia.  The  subject  was  examined  by  that 
convention  in  all  its  bearings,  as  will  appear  from  a  copy  of  its 
proceedings  (which  I  also  forward  with  a  request  that  you  will 
carefully  examine  it) ,  and  the  result  was  the  final  establishment 
of  the  route  by  the  French  Broad  River,  as  the  most  direct  and 
preferable  route  to  the  West.  Among  the  delegates  from  South 
Carolina  present,  and  who  concurred  in  these  proceedings,  were 
Colonel  Gadsden,  Mr.  Poinsett,  Colonel  Noble  and  many  other 
distinguished  men.  The  Georgia  delegation  themselves  finally 
concurred,  asking  only  the  privilege  of  joining  on  by  a  branch,  & 
the  whole  of  the  proceedings  were  adopted  unanimously.  From 
that  moment  I  have  regarded  the  question  as  decided  that  the 
route  from  Charleston  to  the  West  was  to  be  through  the  centre  of 
our  own  State  and  by  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee;  and  after 
obtaining  the  charter  from  the  other  States,  and  going  so  far  on 
this  subject,  I  have  supposed  that  we  were  bound  in  good  faith, 
at  least,  to  do  our  part  towards  the  accomplishment  of  the  object. 
This  to  be  observed,  however,  that  we  never  came  under  any  obli- 
gation to  make  the  road  for  the  other  States,  though  the  idea  was  held 
out  that  South  Carolina  would  be  disposed  to  aid  North  Carolina 
in  doing  her  part  of  the  work.  Should  the  other  States,  therefore, 
fail  to  cooperate  with  us  hereafter,  we  can  certainly  not  be  expected 
to  push  the  work  beyond  our  own  limits,  and  to  that  extent  it  seems 
to  me  it  would  be,  in  any  event,  our  interest  to  go.  But  though  I 
have  supposed  that  the  question  of  extending  our  connection  to  the 
West  by  the  French  Broad  River  was  settled  (provided  the  other 
States  should  do  their  part  towards  it)  I  was  aware  that  some  of 
our  citizens,  especially  along  our  Southern  border,  were  very 
solicitous  to  have  a  road  extended  from  the  termination  of  the 


476  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

Charleston  and  Hamburg  Road,  through  the  State  of  Georgia. 
To  meet  their  views,  to  harmonize  the  whole  State,  and  at  the  same 
time  lay  the  foundation  for  the  extension  of  our  connection  in  that 
direction,  we  resolved  to  purchase  that  road.  And  this  has  ac- 
cordingly been  done.  The  putting  that  road  on  a  better  footing 
was  indispensable  to  enable  it  to  command  the  trade  which  will 
be  brought  by  the  Georgia  roads  to  Augusta,  and  from  them  to 
Charleston.  The  funds  of  the  old  company  were  inadequate  to 
that  object ;  the  purchase  by  us,  therefore,  besides  the  other  objects 
to  be  accomplished  by  it,  became  indispensable  to  the  extension 
of  our  connection  through  Georgia.  The  embankment  and  new 
Iron  and  other  repairs  and  other  improvements  will  cost  several 
hundred  thousand  dollars  beyond  the  current  receipts  from  the 
road  itself,  will  in  the  end  consume  the  whole  loan  made  under  the 
guaranty  of  the  State.  While  making  such  great  efforts  and  in- 
curring such  vast  expenditures  to  meet  the  views  of  those  who 
preferred  a  connection  through  Georgia,  it  does  appear  to  me  that 
we  have  justly  entitled  ourselves  to  their  cordial  support  for  that 
other  and  necessary  part  of  our  project,  the  extension  of  our  road  by 
the  central  route  as  far  as  circumstances  may  permit,  taking  care 
to  proceed  only  step  by  step,  and  securing  the  fruits  of  our  labors 
as  we  advance.  You  do  not  seem  to  have  realized  the  unques- 
tionable truth  that  the  project  of  carrying  a  road  by  the  central 
route  was  the  only  one  that  could  have  secured  the  aid  of  the  State, 
or  enabled  us  to  purchase  the  Charleston  Railroad,  or  given  us  the 
smallest  chance  of  success.  The  guaranty  of  the  State  to  the  loan 
could  not  have  been  obtained,  nor  the  Bank  of  Charleston  have 
been  secured  by  any  other  plan.  Now,  all  the  stockholders  — 
whatever  may  be  their  respective  views  as  to  the  most  expedient 
route  for  the  road  —  concur  unanimously  in  the  opinion  that  the 
bank  is  indispensable  to  the  success  of  any  road.  Without  it,  our 
whole  scheme  would  have  failed  long  since,  nor  can  the  Charleston 


CALHOUN   RESIGNS   FROM   DIRECTORSHIP  477 

and  Hamburg  Road  be  paid  for  or  improved  except  by  means  of 
this  common  bond,  which  alone  can  keep  the  company  together. 
We  think,  too,  that  this  bank,  under  an  enlarged  and  liberal  system 
of  management,  will  supersede  the  necessity  of  a  U.  S.  Bank,  and 
be  of  inestimable  value  to  the  trade  and  currency  of  the  South. 
The  giving  up  the  route  by  the  French  Broad  River  would  even 
now  forfeit  the  Bank  charter,  which  could  never  have  been  obtained 
in  favor  of  a  road  looking  to  any  other  route.  Your  own  reflections 
will,  I  am  convinced,  fully  satisfy  you  on  both  of  these  points.  Now 
it  seems  to  me  there  can  be  but  one  danger  from  the  prosecution  of 
our  scheme  in  that  direction,  and  that  is,  that  the  other  States  may 
not  meet  us  and  cooperate  in  the  work.  But  we  have  laid  down 
the  rule  of  progressing  step  by  step  from  the  ocean  and  applying 
our  own  funds  to  that  part  of  the  road  lying  within  our  own  limits. 
To  the  road,  as  far  as  Columbia,  I  do  not  understand  you  to  make 
any  objection.  I  presume  that  when  we  reach  Columbia  you 
would  not  object  (should  our  means  permit)  that  our  road  should 
be  extended  to  the  foot  of  the  mountains ;  there  it  must,  of  course, 
stop,  if  the  other  States  do  not  put  their  shoulders  to  the  wheel. 
But  under  our  charter  we  have  ten  years  for  this;  during  all 
this  time  our  Bank  will  be  in  full  operation.  In  less  than  half 
that  time  we  will  have  paid  for  and  completed  the  improvements 
on  the  Charleston  and  Hamburg  Road,  &  pushed  our  connections 
in  that  direction  to  the  Missi/  and  the  Gulph  of  Mexico.  You 
will  see,  therefore,  that  our  plan  will  substantially  accomplish  all 
that  you  desire,  and  will  do  so  by  means  that  would  not  have  been 
at  our  disposal  at  all,  but  for  the  very  measures  which  we  have 
adopted.  Why  not,  then,  harmonize  the  whole  State  and  cordially 
cooperate  together  in  the  prosecution  of  our  schemes  of  improve- 
ment on  the  plan  here  suggested?  The  only  plan,  be  assured, 
by  which  ever  your  views  can  be  effected.  I  have  myself  great 
confidence  that  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee  will  in  the  end  make 


478  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

the  road  to  Knoxville ;  and  then,  if  Kentucky  fails  to  do  her  part, 
let  it  for  the  present  stop.  You  doubt  if  these  States  will  do  any- 
thing, and  I  agree  with  you  that,  if  they  fail,  our  road  shall  be 
confined  to  the  limits  of  our  own  State,  —  and  even  to  that  extent 
it  will  be  of  great  value  to  our  own  citizens.  What,  therefore,  can 
be  the  practical  difference  between  us,  in  the  present  state  of  the 
question?  What  would  you  have  us  do  that  we  are  not  now 
doing  ?  Would  you  have  us  formally  resolve  to  stop  the  road  now 
going  on  towards  Columbia  ?  and  declare  beforehand  that  we  will 
in  no  event  extend  it  beyond  Columbia?  If  so,  we  forfeit  all  our 
charters  at  once,  put  an  end  to  the  Bank  and  the  road  together,  and 
realize  all  the  calamities  which  must  attend  such  a  disgraceful 
failure.  I  am  quite  sure  you  could  not  desire  this,  and  a  moment's 
reflection  must  convince  you  that  our  present  plan  of  operation 
is  the  only  one  by  which  your  object  as  well  as  ours  can  ever  be 
effected.  I  am  satisfied  that,  with  your  cooperation,  we  cannot 
and  will  not  fail,  in  effecting  a  connection  with  the  South-West, 
through  Georgia,  and  in  carrying  our  road  at  least  to  the  foot  of 
the  mountains;  its  progress  further  must  depend  on  the  coopera- 
tion of  Georgia  and  Tennessee.  Should  your  influence  be  thrown 
against  us,  our  whole  project,  in  all  its  parts,  may  fail.  But  what- 
ever may  be  the  result,  I  am  determined  that  no  efforts  on  my  part 
shall  be  wanting  to  prevent  such  a  calamity.  If  our  whole  scheme 
is  destined  to  fail,  the  fault  shall  not  be  mine.  And  I  can  con- 
scientiously declare  that  I  have  entered  upon  this  great  work  with 
the  purest  and  most  patriotic  motives ;  that  I  have  no  ends  to  an- 
swer, but  to  advance  the  success  and  welfare  of  the  country,  and 
that  I  am  disposed  to  go  as  far  as  I  possibly  can,  without  betraying 
my  trust,  to  meet  the  views  and  wishes  of  such  of  my  fellow  citizens 
as  may  prefer  another  route.  Having  made  this  full  and  frank 
explanation  of  my  views  and  feelings,  I  am  not  without  hope  that 
you  may  find  in  them  sufficient  to  satisfy  all  your  doubts  &  that  in 


CALHOUN  RESIGNS   FROM   DIRECTORSHIP  479 

our  further  measures  I  shall  have  your  support,  always  valuable, 
and  in  this  case  peculiarly  desirable  to  me.  While  thus  discussing 
in  the  spirit  of  'by  gone  times'  the  points  of  difference  between 
us  on  this  subject,  you  will  allow  me  to  say  one  [word]  on  other 
points.  It  has  been  to  me  a  source  of  much  regret  that  I  could 
not  concur  with  you  on  some  of  the  political  questions  which  have 
of  late  agitated  the  Country.  In  those  questions  and  the  contests 
which  have  grown  out  of  them  I  have  taken  no  part,  being 
persuaded  that  these  things  would  soon  pass  away,  and  that 
other  questions  of  more  vital  importance  would  soon  absorb  all 
our  attention.  I  believe  that  the  Abolition  question  will  in  a  few 
years  assume  an  importance  which  will  throw  everything  else  into 
the  shade.  Have  you  seen  the  proceedings  &  speeches  of  the  late 
meeting  at  Birmingham  ?  Have  you  marked  the  open  interference 
of  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North  with  the  Elections  ?  Be  assured  a 
great  struggle  is  at  hand,  and  we  must  be  united  at  home.  Bring 
the  South,  I  say,  into  convention,  and  tender  an  issue.  This  sooner 
or  later  must  be  done,  '  or  we  shall  be  undone/  Let  the  Sub-treas- 
ury, I  say,  be  settled  one  way  or  the  other ;  let  the  National  Bank 
be  abandoned  and  thought  of  as  [illegible],  &  let  all  other  party 
questions  among  us  cease,  and  the  South  be  rallied  to  the  defence 
of  our  '  altars  and  our  firesides.'  In  this  cause  I  trust  we  shall  be 
again  found  fighting  'shoulder  to  shoulder,'  and  that  all  past  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  will  be  forgotten. 

"  Believe  me  to  be  as  ever 

"Most  sincerely  yours 

"Robt.  Y.  Hayne."1 

This  letter  throws  a  light  upon  the  conduct  of  the  railroad  scheme 
which  makes  much  that  was  obscure  quite  clear.     Hayne  states 

1  Letter  of  R.  Y.  Hayne  copied  from  original  in  Clemson  Collection,  by  courtesy 
of  Professor  Keitt,  for  author. 


480  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

that  the  result  of  the  Knoxville  Convention  was  to  decide  that  the 
route  of  the  road  "from  Charleston  to  the  West  was  to  be  through 
the  centre  of  our  own  State  and  by  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee," 
which  was  certainly  the  case,  and  also  that  the  French  Broad  route 
had  been  praised  highly  by  Colonel  Gadsden,  when  connected  with 
the  company  as  engineer.  The  first  indication  of  discord  was  the 
springing  on  the  promoters,  at  the  time  when  books  were  being 
opened,  of  the  Tuckaseege  route,  discovered  by  Calhoun  and 
Gadsden,  with  regard  to  which  it  is  evident  that  Hayne  considered 
there  had  been  some  reflection  cast  upon  him  by  the  comments  of 
the  meeting  advocating  it,  and  he  then  quotes  Calhoun  as  authority 
for  the  idea  that  he,  Hayne,  and  the  engineer  who  had  examined 
the  route  had  been  misled  by  the  guide,  but  as  this  one  was  fur- 
nished by  the  residents,  he  stated  he  failed  to  see  how  he  or  the  en- 
gineer were  to  blame.  Subsequently,  careful  examination  seems 
to  have  convinced  even  Calhoun  that  the  Tuckaseege  route  was 
impracticable,  and  Hayne  evidently  suggested  to  Calhoun  that  he 
would  support  him  for  the  presidency,  as  he  well  could  afford  to 
do,  on  Calhoun's  letter  to  Noble;  but  Calhoun  had  required  im- 
possible conditions,  and  does  not  seem  to  have  been  thought  of 
by  others,  who  in  Hayne's  absence  elected  him  (Hayne).  Then 
began  the  paper  war,  which  it  was  vainly  sought  to  appease  with 
the  purchase  of  the  Hamburg  Road,  with  regard  to  which  Hayne 
had  declared  that  he  who  further  opposed  must  be  at  heart  an 
enemy  to  the  enterprise.  But  the  war  grew  only  fiercer,  and  Cal- 
houn resigned.     What  was  he  to  think  of  his  old  leader's  action  ? 

Meanwhile,  Hamilton  having  successfully  placed  one  loan  in 
Europe,  had  returned  with  $500,000  in  specie  aboard  the  ship 
Osceola  l  and  interest  in  the  bank  absorbed  the  attention  of  the 
public,  the  stockholders  being  divided  into  two  parties,  one  for 
combining  the  two  corporations  under  one  president,  the  other 

1  Courier,  Nov.  3,  1838. 


CALHOUN   RESIGNS   FROM   DIRECTORSHIP  481 

for  keeping  them  apart;  and  to  avoid  misunderstanding,  Hayne 
publicly  announced  that  he  was  not  a  candidate  for  the  presidency 
of  the  bank  and  had  no  intention  of  relinquishing  the  presidency 
of  the  road,  in  which  he  asserted  his  confidence.1  Those  who  fa- 
vored the  combination  which  had  been  the  course  taken  in  Georgia, 
persisted,  and  in  some  way,  whether  through  the  rumor  of  Cal- 
houn's resignation  or  otherwise,  the  report  got  abroad  that  the 
railroad  was  to  be  abandoned,  and  City  Council  passed  a  resolution 
to  the  effect  that  such  "  would  be  a  violation  of  the  faith  of  the 
State."2  Calhoun's  second  letter  to  Hayne  had,  in  the  interim,  been 
written,  and  must  be  now  considered.  "  Fort  Hill,  November  17th, 
1838.  My  dear  Sir :  I  have  received  your  two  letters  in  answer  to 
mine  covering  my  resignation  in  the  direction  of  the  Charleston 
and  Cincinnati  Railroad  Company.  In  resigning,  it  was  no  part 
of  my  intention  to  embarrass  the  work  or  weaken  the  public  con- 
fidence in  the  direction;  to  avoid  the  possibility  of  which,  I  ab- 
stained from  assigning  one  of  the  reasons  which  governed  me,  in 
my  note  of  resignation.  Before  the  public  my  resignation  will 
stand  exactly  where  you  express  a  desire  it  should ;  but  at  the  same 
time  I  thought  it  due  both  to  you  and  myself  that  I  should  assign 
the  other,  which  had  great  weight  with  me;  and  such  is  still  my 
opinion.  Either,  separately,  is  sufficient,  and  the  two  taken  in 
conjunction  appear  to  my  mind  irresistible;  nor  can  I  see,  in  any 
of  the  considerations  you  suggest,  reasons  to  change  my  opinion. 
My  conviction  of  the  failure  of  the  enterprise  is  deep,  accompanied 
by  the  belief  that  every  foot  the  road  may  progress  beyond  the  point 
now  arrived  at  in  that  direction  will  but  increase  the  embarrass- 
ment. You  ask  what  is  to  be  done  ?  That  is  a  serious  question,  which 
I  am  not  prepared  to  answer,  but  I  would  say  .  .  .  that  neither 
the  charter  of  the  bank  nor  the  road  ought  to  be  forfeited,  nor  any 
understanding  or  pledge  to  other  states  violated,  if  it  be  possible 

1  Ibid.,  Nov.  13,  1838.  2  Ibid.,  Nov.  21,  1838. 

21 


482  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

to  avoid  it  without  disastrous  consequences.  Thus  thinking,  I 
would  certainly  say  that  if  the  other  states  would  complete  the 
work  within  their  respective  limits,  or  progress  proportionately 
with  us  toward  such  completion,  we  ought  in  good  faith  to  meet 
them  on  our  borders,  though  I  believe  that  the  work,  if  completed 
throughout,  would  not  give  an  income  that  would  keep  it  up. 
Other  routes,  in  my  opinion  having  far  greater  natural  advantages, 
would  supersede  it.  I  am  aware  of  the  commitments  in  favor  of 
the  route  (for  I  have  read  everything  attentively  that  has  been  pub- 
lished in  relation  to  it) ,  and  know  that  it  would  be  embarrassing  to 
make  a  change.  It  is  far  from  my  wish  to  increase  the  embarrass- 
ments, but  personally  I  feel  none  of  them.  I  have  been  from  the 
first  opposed  to  the  route.  In  reply  to  a  letter  from  Mr.  Williams, 
who  first  proposed  a  connection  between  Charleston  and  Cin- 
cinnati, I  stated  that  we  must  turn  the  Aleghany  to  the  South  West, 
as  New  York  had  to  the  North  East,  and  the  Tennessee  River 
was  to  us  what  the  North  River  was  to  New  York.  With  this  view 
I  proposed  to  aim  at  a  point  on  that  river  above  the  Muscle  Shoals 
and  below  the  Suck.  Learning  afterwards  that  the  Aleghany 
chain  terminated  farther  East  than  I  had  supposed,  and  that 
the  Tennessee  might  be  struck  at  a  near  point  higher  up  and  on  a 
shorter  route,  passing  through  a  more  level  country,  I  opened  a 
correspondence  with  some  influential  citizens  of  Georgia,  pro- 
posing that  route  as  the  line  of  communication  between  the  ports 
of  the  two  states  and  the  Western  Waters,  to  be  opened  by  the  joint 
efforts  of  the  two.  With  this  view  in  part,  I  took  Columbia  on  my 
way  to  Washington  at  the  next  session,  when,  as  you  will  remember, 
I  proposed  it  to  both  you  and  Hamilton,  but  without  success. 
That  route  Georgia  has  since  adopted,  but  with  a  direction  looking 
wholly  to  her  own  interests,  and  not  to  that  of  the  two  States 
jointly,  as  might  at  that  early  stage  have  been  easily  effected.  Find- 
ing so  strong  an  aversion  to  cooperate  with  Georgia,  and  believing 


i 


CALHOUN   RESIGNS   FROM   DIRECTORSHIP  483 

that  the  success  of  the  work  depended  on  leaning  as  far  to  the  West 
as  possible  and  striking  the  Tennessee  River  instead  of  the  Ohio, 
I  next  endeavored  to  find  a  route  over  the  mountains  at  some  point 
as  far  West  as  possible,  without  touching  Georgia  to  meet  these 
views.  At  one  time  I  hoped  I  had  succeeded,  but  having  failed  on 
that,  my  next  hope  was  that  time  or  experience,  before  it  was  too 
late,  would  effect  a  change  in  public  opinion  in  favor  of  the  views 
I  entertained.  With  this  hope  I  assented  cheerfully  to  the  proposi- 
tion to  purchase  the  Hamburg  Road,  as  it  looked  in  the  right  direc- 
tion, and  would  afford  an  opportunity  to  unite  our  system  of  im- 
provement with  that  of  Georgia,  to  which  we  must  look  ultimately, 
in  my  opinion,  for  the  completion  of  the  great  object  we  have  in 
view.  But  inferring  from  the  last  report  that  it  is  intended  to 
persist  in  carrying  through  the  enterprise  by  the  route  of  the  French 
Broad,  I  felt  that  a  period  had  been  reached  when,  with  my  opinion, 
I  could  no  longer  continue,  with  propriety,  a  member  of  the  direc- 
tion. How  could  I,  when  I  believe  to  go  beyond  Columbia,  unless 
with  a  full  understanding  that  the  other  States  will  do  their  share, 
will  but  add  to  our  embarrassment,  and  that  if  the  road  was  finished, 
it  would  be  superseded  by  the  one  through  Georgia.  In  confir- 
mation of  this  I  will  state  a  few  facts.  I  learn  from  the  engineers 
.  .  .  The  fact  is  that  the  whole  road  will  be  executed  and  the  con- 
nection with  the  West  completed  before  we  are  fairly  under  way. 
.  .  .  Now  when  we  take  into  consideration  the  greater  cheapness, 
the  far  more  favorable  grade,  the  vast  amount  of  business  .  .  . 
can  it  be  doubted  .  .  .  that  the  trade  of  Knoxville  itself  will 
pass  through  it  to  Charleston  in  preference  to  ours,  even  if  it  was 
completed?  But  you  say  that  no  other  route  could  have  secured 
the  passage  of  the  Railroad  bank  Charter  or  commanded  a  ma- 
jority of  our  Legislature  in  its  favor.  Taking  the  view  that  you 
do  of  the  bank,  that  certainly  is  a  strong  consideration ;  but  here, 
again,  it  has  been  our  misfortune  to  differ ;  one  of  my  objections  to 


484  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

the  route  was  that  it  could  not  sustain  itself  by  its  own  advantages 
without  the  artificial  aid  of  the  bank,  to  which  I  was  opposed,  among 
other  grounds,  because  the  union  of  the  two  powers  in  the  same 
company,  that  over  the  currency  and  intercourse  of  the  country 
would  be  dangerous  to  our  free  institutions,  in  which  I  pray  I  may 
be  deceived.  But  having  been  overruled,  I  acquiesced,  and  wish 
the  institution  every  success,  and  I  trust  that  it  may  prove,  as  you 
suggest,  the  antagonist  of  a  national  bank.  I  fear  that  your  im- 
pression that  no  other  route  could  have  got  the  support  of  the  State 
is  but  too  true,  and  I  apprehend  that  it  will  add  another  instance 
to  the  many  others  of  important  undertakings  defeated  through 
selfish  and  local  feelings.  But  I  hope  in  all  this  I  may  be  in  error. 
I  have  not  stated  my  views  in  a  spirit  of  opposition,  but  simply  to 
place  before  you  the  grounds  on  which  I  act  and  to  free  myself 
from  all  responsibility  where  I  cannot  have  confidence.  Should 
the  work  go  on,  I  shall  wish  both  you  and  it  great  success.  We  are 
all  in  the  same  ship,  and  must  share  alike  in  the  good  or  bad  fortune 
of  the  State ;  and  let  me  add,  in  conclusion,  that  you  cannot  possibly 
feel  more  pain  in  differing  from  me  than  I  do  in  differing  from  you. 
I  shall  ever  remember  the  important  scenes  in  which  we  have  acted 
together  with  pleasure  and  the  important  service  that  you  have 
rendered  the  State  and  the  Union.  I  hope  that  our  differences 
shall  never  affect  our  personal  relations,  and  that  those  that  are 
passed  are  the  last  we  shall  ever  experience.  As  to  what  you  say  of 
the  Abolition  question,  we  do  not  differ.  The  danger  is  great  and 
menacing,  and  I  have  long  thought  and  still  think  that  the  South 
ought  to  meet  in  Convention  in  relation  to  it.  You  know  that  such 
was  my  opinion  years  ago.  .  .  .  You  will  recollect  I  so  expressed 
myself  to  you,  Hamilton  and  McDuffie  at  Columbia  in  our  con- 
sultation on  the  subject  at  the  time.  Finding  different  views  were 
taken,  I  resolved  to  do  my  best  in  Congress.  .  .  .  With  this  view 
I  moved  the  resolutions  of  last  winter  which  have  in  a  great  meas- 


CALHOUN   RESIGNS   FROM   DIRECTORSHIP  485 

ure  effected  the  object  I  had  in  view.  Should  it  finally  accom- 
plish what  was  intended,  it  may  prevent  for  the  present  a  conflict, 
but  I  look  only  to  ourselves  for  permanent  security.  I  for  one  am 
prepared  at  the  earliest  period  to  go  into  convention  and  bring  the 
question  to  an  issue.  The  sooner  the  better  for  all  parties.  .  .  . 
I  have  written  you  a  long  and  I  fear  a  tedious  letter,  but  I  have  not 
said  half  I  desired  to  do,  etc."  1 

Considered  by  itself,  this  is  an  admirable  letter  both  in  argument 
and  tone  and  so  considered  comes  very  near  justifying  the  great  man 
who  penned  it ;  but  when  it  is  analyzed  coldly  in  the  light  of  other 
statements  made  by  the  distinguished  author,  it  fails  utterly  to  do  so. 
In  the  first  place,  he  apparently  admits  in  this  letter  that  the  company 
ought  in  good  faith  to  do  that  on  account  of  which  he  had  in  his  first 
letter  decided  to  withdraw  from  it  for  fear  of  its  doing.  He  admits 
also  that  in  the  Tuckaseege  route  he  had  failed ;  but  he  had  distinctly 
narrowed  the  choice  then  to  the  Tuckaseege  and  the  French  Broad 
route,  when  confident  that  the  Tuckaseege  was  the  better,  and  had 
averred  to  Noble  that  upon  a  survey  indicating  which  was  the 
better,  all  would  acquiesce  —  "even  the  selfish  would  be  ashamed 
to  object."  Yet  a  decision  in  favor  of  the  French  Broad,  by  an 
engineer  in  whom  he  had  asserted  the  greatest  confidence,  did  not 
have  the  least  effect  in  removing  his  opposition  to  the  French  Broad 
route,  and  simply  sent  him  back  after  the  Georgia  connection, 
which  he  had  abandoned  for  the  Tuckaseege  route.  He  was  put- 
ting his  opinion  not  only  against  that  of  Mr.  Hayne,  the  president 
of  the  road,  and  all  the  other  directors  and  bulk  of  the  stockholders, 
but  the  best  engineering  talent  of  the  day,  which  the  best  of  to-day 
approves.  The  author  of  "The  Defense  of  Charleston  Harbor," 
one  of  the  best  engineers  South  Carolina  has  ever  produced,  thus 
contrasts  the  routes  supported  by  Hayne  and  Calhoun :  "  A  thread 
stretched  from  Charleston  to  the  country  in  Kentucky,  midway 

1  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  pp.  412-416. 


486  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

between  Louisville  and  Cincinnati,  will  pass  almost  exactly  through 
these  two  cardinal  points,  Asheville  and  Butt  Mountain  Gap,  in 
North  Carolina.  Measuring  off  at  right  angles  from  this  air  line, 
the  Rabun  gap  in  N.  Eastern  Georgia  is  distant  to  the  S.  W.  60 
miles,  laying  upon  that  route  the  disadvantage  of  being  from  40 
to  50  miles  longer,  and  with  the  Stump  House  tunnel  for  additional 
expense."  *  It  should  be  added  that  this  engineer,  later  the  Rev- 
erend John  Johnson,  was  engaged  as  an  engineer  by  the  South 
Carolina  Railroad  in  examining  this  very  section  of  country  some 
ten  years  subsequent  to  Hayne's  surveys.  So  much,  then,  for 
Calhoun's  judgment.  But  now  a  graver  inquiry  arises.  What  of 
his  sincerity?  Can  one  of  sound  reason  believe  in  the  sincerity 
of  the  declaration  of  date  November  17  :  "  Should  the  work  go  on,  I 
shall  wish  both  you  and  it  great  success,"  when  we  find  that  by  the 
following  day,  November  18,  he  is  doing  what  he  can  to  discredit  it? 
From  a  fragmentary  letter  among  his  papers  appears  the  following : 
"  Dear  Sir :  Your  letter  presents  many  interesting  facts  and  views. 
I  have  never  doubted  but  that  our  success  depended  on  the  coop- 
eration with  Georgia,  and  have  throughout  acted  on  that  belief." 
The  day  previous  he  had  informed  Hayne:  "  Finding  so  strong  an 
aversion  to  cooperate  with  Georgia  ...  I  next  endeavored  to  find 
a  route  over  the  mountains  at  some  point  as  far  West  as  possible, 
without  touching  Georgia,  to  meet  these  views."  Characterizing 
the  French  Broad  route  as  "a  mad  project,"  he  counsels  his  cor- 
respondent not  to  agitate  for  the  charter  he  has  in  view,  as  the  "  in- 
fatuation in  favor  of  the  French  Broad  route  is  yet  too  strong," 
but  expresses  the  hope  that  the  move  may  be  made  "in  a  year."  2 
Does  this  not  prove  beyond  a  shadow  of  doubt  that  his  hope  ex- 
pressed to  Hayne  that  he,  Calhoun,  might  be  wrong,  and  his  wish 
of  great  success  to  him,  Hayne,  and  the  road,  was  absolutely 

1  Memorandum,  prepared  for  author  by  the  late  Reverend  John  Johnson,  D.D. 
3  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  418. 


CALHOUN   RESIGNS   FROM   DIRECTORSHIP  487 

insincere?  But  there  is  still  graver  criticism  than  this  to  be 
directed  against  this  letter  than  lack  of  sincerity.  Calhoun  dis- 
tinctly declares  that  one  of  his  "objections  to  the  route  was  that  it 
could  not  sustain  itself  by  its  own  advantages  without  the  artificial 
aid  of  the  bank,"  to  which  he  was  opposed,  among  other  grounds, 
because  "the  union  of  the  two  powers  in  the  same  company  .  .  . 
would  be  dangerous  to  our  free  institutions  "  ;  and  yet  within  a  year, 
on  the  death  of  Hayne,  we  find  him  pressing  and  advocating  that 
very  union  in  the  person  of  Colonel  Gadsden,1  the  strongest  op- 
ponent to  the  French  Broad  route,  next  to  Calhoun.  This  vague 
fear  of  evil  flowing  from  the  union  was,  however,  so  strong  with  the 
mass  of  stockholders  about  this  time  that,  although  the  junction 
of  the  two  offices  was  advocated  by  James  Gadsden,  the  chairman, 
and  the  majority  of  the  committee  of  thirteen  appointed  to  report 
on  the  presidency  of  the  bank ;  yet  the  view  of  the  minority  of  five, 
headed  by  C.  G.  Memminger,  prevailed,  and  while  Blanding,  a 
director  in  the  road,  was  chosen  president  of  the  bank,  Hayne, 
the  president  of  the  road,  was  left  off  even  the  Board  of  Direction  of 
the  bank,  in  spite  of  his  nomination  for  that  position  by  the  City 
Council  of  Charleston.  In  supporting  Hayne  for  the  presidency 
of  the  bank,  Gadsden  called  on  him  for  an  opinion  on  this  point, 
to  which  Hayne  "made  a  candid  and  manly  statement  of  his 
views  of  the  proposed  combination  of  the  presidencies,  expressing 
his  approbation  of  the  measure  as  legally  expedient  and  desirable 
to  produce  harmony  of  action  between  road  and  bank,  and  his 
willingness,  if  deemed  expedient  by  the  stockholders,  to  serve  in 
both  capacities  without  additional  compensation,  and  at  the  same 
time  disclaiming  all  personal  desire  for  an  office  which  could 
only  increase  his  burdens  without  corresponding  profit."  2  That 
after  this  he  should  not  have  been  even  put  upon  the  board ;  while, 
as  we  have  seen,  not  only  Blanding  served  on  both  boards  but  also 

1  Ibid.,  p.  431.  2  Courier,  Nov.  ax,  1838. 


i' 


488  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Hamilton,  seems  peculiar,  especially  when  we  find  that  in  addition 
to  the  above,  by  the  account  of  the  Courier:  "He  reiterated  the 
patriotic  pledge  not  to  suffer  himself  to  be  detached  from  the  road ; 
on  the  contrary,  to  devote  all  the  powers  which  God  had  given  him 
to  its  successful  prosecution  and  ultimate  consummation."  Did 
that  declaration  chill  the  fervor  of  some  of  his  supporters?  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  the  strange  omission  excited  comment  from  among 
his  friends,  as  the  following  chapter  indicates. 


CHAPTER    X 

JUDGE  KING'S  LETTER  ON  THE  BANK  ELECTIONS.  THE  ESTIMATE 
OF  HAYNE  AND  THE  WESTERN  ROAD  AT  THIS  TIME  IN  VIR- 
GINIA. HAYNE'S  LETTER  CONCERNING  THE  VOTE  TO  REJECT 
THE  NOMINATION  OF  VAN  BUREN  AS  MINISTER  TO  ENGLAND. 
HIS  POWERFUL  INFLUENCE  WITH  THE  SOUTH  CAROLINA 
LEGISLATURE 

As  subsequent  events  proved,  Judge  King  stood  second,  in  the 
estimation  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  road,  to  Hayne.  At 
an  early  and  important  meeting  of  the  Charleston  stockholders 
he  had  been  selected  as  their  proxy,  and  his  relations  with  the 
president  throughout  were  close  and  cordial.  In  contrast  to  the 
whining  criticism,  the  petty  jealousies  and  the  sublime  egotism 
which  contributed  to  wreck  this  grand  enterprise  and  which  heaped 
burden  upon  burden  on  the  self-sacrificing  patriot,  who  sustained 
it  unflinchingly  to  his  death,  there  is  something  wholesome  and 
strengthening  in  the  letter  of  Judge  King,  which  is  herewith  sub- 
mitted :  — 

"  My  dear  General  :  — 

"  To-morrow  morning  I  start  by  the  Railroad  for  Columbia 
to  attend  the  circuit  court  that  sits  there  on  Monday.  I  am  con- 
strained to  go  a  day  sooner  than  I  wished  in  order  to  secure  a  seat 
in  a  conveyance  that  will  be  in  time  for  the  court.  Had  it  not  been 
for  the  melancholy  event  which  has  this  very  day  clothed  your 
family  in  mourning,  I  should  have  called  in  person  on  you  to  express 
to  you  my  deep  dissatisfaction  at  the  result  of  the  election  of  bank 

489 


490  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

directors.  My  wish  was  undoubtedly  that  you  should  have  been 
one  of  the  Board,  and  I  cannot  but  think  that  some  of  our  friends 
must  have  been  for  the  time  under  a  mental  delusion  when  your 
name  was  omitted.  An  opinion  was,  I  understand,  very  indus- 
triously circulated  that  the  offices  of  Director  of  the  Road  and  of 
the  Bank  were  incompatible,  and  tho  I  did  state  to  the  meeting  in 
the  City  Hall  my  clear  and  unhesitating  opinion  on  the  subject, 
many  of  the  stockholders  were  —  I  am  persuaded  —  influenced 
by  the  opinion  of  Judge  Colcock,  and  the  argument,  as  it  was  called, 
addressed  to  a  plain  man.  I  do  wish  I  had  an  opportunity  of  a 
half-hour's  talk  with  you.  That,  however,  must  await  my  return. 
Unless  you  join  us  in  Columbia  early  in  the  week.  Most  earnestly 
do  I  trust  that  the  difficulties  through  which  we  have  just  passed 
will  rise  up  in  the  minds  of  the  stockholders,  and  that  they  will 
remember  how  much  they  owe  you,  and  that  but  for  you  the  honors 
and  emoluments  for  which  so  many  of  them  are  struggling  would 
never  have  been  called  in  existence.     I  am,  My  dear  Sir,  with  the 

sincerest  regards  &  esteem 

"Very  truly  yours, 

"M.  King.1 

"Thursday  evening,  226.  Nov.,  1838." 

As  the  date  of  the  convening  of  the  Legislature  approached,  it 
became  apparent  that  opposition  to  the  road  was  brewing,  and  the 
declaration  of  the  Governor  in  his  message,  "Cost  what  it  may, 
South  Carolina  must  achieve  this  work,"  was  hailed  with  delight 
by  the  Courier,  which  editorialized  as  follows:  "The  stand  which 
his  Excellency  takes  on  the  subject  is  worthy  of  his  character  and 
patriotism,  and  will  doubtless  meet  a  hearty  response  from  both  the 
Legislature  and  the  people  of  the  State.  South  Carolina  has  indeed 
staked  her  fame  on  the  prosecution  of  this  noble  enterprise,  —  in 
this  matter  there  will  be  with  her  no  shadow  of  change  or  turning, 

1  Original  letter  of  Judge  King. 


KING'S   LETTER   ON   THE   BANK   ELECTIONS  491 

—  and  we  look  to  General  Hayne,  fixed  with  a  generous  zeal  and 
patriotic  devotion  to  the  public  good,  and  fully  possessed  of  the 
confidence  of  his  own  state  and  the  other  states  concerned  in  the 
magnificent  project,  as  the  honored  instrument  of  its  happy  and  glo- 
rious consummation."  1  The  report  of  the  chief  engineer  alludes 
to  illness  in  Hayne' s  family,  as  Judge  King  had;  but  for  himself 
he  says:  "So  far  from  entertaining  a  doubt  of  the  practicability 
of  constructing  the  proposed  railroad  from  Charleston  to  Lexington 
and  the  Ohio  River,  but  especially  to  the  North  Carolina  line, 
the  surveys  of  the  past  season,  and  much  reflection  on  my  part, 
have  served  to  confirm  me  in  the  opinion  expressed  at  the  first 
annual  meeting  of  the  stockholders  at  Flat  Rock  in  1837,  not  only 
of  the  great  feasibility  of  the  project,  but  the  far  greater  facility 
with  which  the  passage  of  the  Alleghany  mountains  may  be  effected 
by  the  routes  within  the  limits  of  our  surveys  than  in  any  other  sec- 
tion of  the  United  States  with  which  we  are  acquainted."  This  was 
the  man  of  whom  Calhoun  had  written,  September  7,  1837,  that  he 
"had  no  doubt  from  the  tone  of  his  letter  that  he  would  do  his 
duty."  Continuing,  Major  McNeill  estimated  that  at  a  little  more 
than  $3,000,000,  in  three  years,  the  road  should  reach  the  North 
Carolina  line.2  The  indefatigable  president  was  meanwhile,  with 
that  tact  which  so  often  disarmed  opposition,  endeavoring  in  pub- 
lic expression  to  bring  the  warring  sections  together.  Responding 
for  South  Carolina  at  the  Virginia  Commercial  Convention,  at 
Norfolk,  he  offered  the  following  sentiment:  "Our  brothers  of  the 
New  England  States,  of  whom  the  South  are  justly  proud:  It  is 
our  duty  and  our  interest  to  cherish  the  most  intimate  commercial 
relations  with  our  Northern  brethren  as  well  as  other  sections  of 
our  Glorious  Union  —  not,  however,  as  dependents  but  on  the 
terms  of   reciprocal  advantage."  3     At  this  same  entertainment 

1  Courier,  Nov.  29,  1838.  2  Ibid.,  Dec.  3,  1838. 

3  Ibid.,  Dec.  4,  1838. 


492  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

John  Tyler,  who  had  been  suggested  by  a  Georgia  paper,  as  has 
been  before  noted,  for  Vice-President,  with  Robert  Y.  Hayne  as 
President  of  the  United  States,  gave  this  toast :  "  General  Robert 
Y.  Hayne :  Distinguished  as  Senator  —  distinguished  as  Governor, 
but  destined  to  be  still  more  distinguished  as  President  of  the 
Charleston  and  Ohio  Railroad." 

To  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  situation  at  home,  meanwhile,  a 
bill  had  been  introduced  in  the  Legislature  to  allow  the  Charleston 
and  Hamburg  Road  to  increase  its  rates  and  to  grant  certain  lots 
in  Columbia  to  that  company;  but  the  temper  of  the  Legislature 
seemed  to  have  changed,  and  was  hostile.  The  bill  was  laid  upon 
the  table.  Hayne  was  to  have  gone  to  Kentucky  to  address  the 
Legislature  of  that  State  in  behalf  of  the  banking  privileges  desired 
for  the  Southwestern  bank ;  but  with  the  above  action  of  the  South 
Carolina  Legislature  it  was  "Resolved:  That  in  the  opinion  of 
the  Board  the  president  could  not  proceed  to  Kentucky  without 
great  prejudice  to  the  interests  of  the  company,  and  that  the  presi- 
dent be  authorized,  in  conjunction  with  the  president  of  the  Bank, 
to  request  C.  G.  Memminger  to  proceed  to  Kentucky,  to  present 
the  petition  proposed  to  the  Legislature."  ' 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  D.  E.  Huger,  so  long  out  of  politics, 
on  account  of  his  attitude  with  regard  to  nullification,  now  back 
in  the  State  senate,  was  the  mover  of  the  resolution  "that  R.  Y. 
Hayne  be  invited  to  a  seat  in  the  senate,  to  give  information  re- 
specting the  bill  authorizing  a  subscription  to  the  South  Western 
Bank."  2  The  information  was  given,  and  all  objections  to  that 
and  all  other  legislation  desired  for  the  road  seemed  to  have  at  once 
vanished.  Although  the  committee  of  finance  of  the  senate  had 
recommended  that  the  bill  advocating  this  subscription  be  rejected, 
it  was  promptly  agreed  to  and  sent  to  the  House.  The  guarantee 
of  $2,000,000  was  made  even  more  liberal  in  its  terms.    The 

1  Courier,  Dec.  11,  1838.  2  Ibid.,  Dec.  19,  1838. 


KING'S   LETTER   ON  THE   BANK  ELECTIONS  493 

increased  rates  asked  for  and  refused  were  reconsidered  and 
granted;  the  contract  made  in  London  confirmed;  the  vacant 
lots  in  Columbia  desired,  granted.1  In  spite  of  the  incessant  at- 
tacks upon  the  enterprise,  it  was  held  firmly  in  position  by  the  abil- 
ity of  the  head.  It  had  weathered  storm  after  storm  and  survived 
cabal  after  cabal.  After  surveys  covering  some  2000  miles,  it  was  now 
under  construction,  at  the  end  of  two  years,  with  but  two,  or  at  the 
most  three,  instalments,  amounting  to  from  10  to  15  per  cent  of  the 
subscription  called  for.  Finance,  tact  and  eloquence  had  achieved 
much;  but,  "with  delay,  interest  was,  of  necessity,  running  and, 
if  the  subscribers  desired  and  meant  to  build  the  road,  something 
more  than  10  or  15  per  cent  of  their  subscription  was  necessary. 
And  this  was  the  condition  as  the  last  year  of  Hayne's  life  opened. 
By  a  narrow  margin  Memminger  had  failed  to  carry  the  Kentucky 
Legislature  for  the  banking  facilities,  although  by  the  press  his 
oratorical  effort  was  accorded  unstinted  praise,  and  Hayne,  visiting 
the  Southwest  for  some  purpose,  not  appearing,  had,  at  Jackson, 
Mississippi,  explained  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  press  of  that  city 
his  attitude  on  nullification.  Returning  to  South  Carolina,  he  had, 
with  Hugh  S.  Legare,  W.  C.  Preston  and  others,  interested  himself 
to  revive  the  Southern  Review,  and  seems  to  have  been  placed  second 
only  to  the  scholarly  Legare  in  that  direction.2  At  the  banquet 
given  in  the  spring  of  the  year  1839  to  the  Commercial  Convention, 
his  name  heads  the  list,  and  the  toast  given  in  compliment  to  him 
by  the  delegation  from  Tennessee  indicates  how  growing  was  the 
regard  felt  for  him  beyond  the  borders  of  his  native  State.  John 
H.  Crozier  of  Tennessee,  in  behalf  of  the  Tennessee  delegation  on 
that  occasion,  offered  this  sentiment :  "  General  Robt.  Y.  Hayne, 
President  Louisville,  Cincinnati  and  Charleston  Railroad:  He 
who  governs  the  power  of  a  people  to  overcome  foreign  enemies 
deserves  their  warmest  gratitude  and  lasting  remembrance;    but 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  21,  1838.  3  Ibid.,  April  18,  1839. 


494  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

he  who  superintends  the  energies  of  states,  to  bind  kindred  spirits 
closer  in  the  bonds  of  friendship,  deserves  all  that  head  and  heart 
can  bestow."  l 

It  is  a  striking  coincidence  that  in  this,  the  last  year  of  his  life, 
when  striving  to  uphold  the  great  railroad  to  the  West,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  view  of  that  great  Carolinian,  of  whose  policies  in  the 
most  critical  part  of  his  career  he,  Hayne,  had  been  the  warmest 
defender  and  ablest  supporter,  discussion  should  have  turned  upon 
one  of  the  few  acts  of  his  life  for  which  he  must  be  condemned, 
in  spite  of  the  loyalty  to  that  leader  which  it  displayed.  By  the 
merest  chance  the  knowledge  was  forced  upon  the  public  that,  had 
Calhoun  been  willing  to  take  Hayne's  view  in  that  instance,  much 
that  subsequently  embittered  his  own  life  and  interfered  with  his 
advancement  might  have  been  avoided.  On  account  of  the  com- 
ments of  the  press  at  this  time  concerning  his  vote  against  con- 
firming the  appointment  of  Van  Buren  as  Minister  to  England, 
Hayne  was  obliged  to  indicate  how  faulty  Calhoun's  political  sa- 
gacity had  been  on  that  occasion.  Alluding  to  that  vote,  Benton 
says  that  Calhoun,  who  as  Vice-President  cast  the  deciding  vote, 
declared  the  rejection  would  kill  Van  Buren,  while  it  in  reality 
made  him  Jackson's  successor.  Hayne's  letter  shows  that  he 
thought  the  opposition  unwise,  and  that  it  would  effect  just  that, 
but  his  own  statement  of  the  matter  should  be  put  before  the  reader. 
The  advocates  of  Clay  and  Van  Buren  for  the  Presidency  were 
quoting  him,  and  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  put  the  matter  straight. 
The  following  is  his  letter:  "Having  withdrawn  myself  entirely 
from  public  life  and  standing  aloof  from  the  party  contests  of  the 
day,  it  is  with  great  reluctance  that  I  find  myself  constrained  to 
notice  the  allusions  in  your  paper  of  yesterday  to  my  vote  and  re- 
marks in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  on  the  nomination  of  Van 
Buren  as  Minister  to  England.    Your  correspondent  quotes  a  part 

1  Courier,  April  19,  1839. 


KING'S   LETTER   ON  THE   BANK   ELECTIONS  495 

of  my  speech  on  that  occasion,  in  which  I  stated  '  that  if  I  were  a 
juror  in  the  box,  sworn  to  give  a  true  verdict  on  the  issue  made  up 
between  Martin  Van  Buren  and  his  Country,  I  should  feel  myself 
constrained  to  give  that  verdict  against  him.'  On  that  you  remark 
that  '  it  was  party  opposition  that  prompted  the  proceeding  against 
Mr.  Van  Buren,  and  to  that  cause  may  we  ascribe  the  ferocity  of  the 
warfare  waged  against  him.  To  say  the  least,  it  was  an  unwise  and 
impolitic  warfare,  and  we  know  that  it  was  against  the  judgment 
of  one  of  its  distinguished  supporters,  to  whom  our  correspondent 
alludes.  He  predicted  the  result  with  unerring  sagacity;  he  fore- 
saw that  it  would  be  an  element  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  success,  and 
yet  the  exigencies  of  party  arrayed  him  in  debate  against  his  de- 
liberate judgment.'  Without  further  explanation  it  might  seem 
that  I  had  on  this  occasion  expressed  opinions  that  I  did  not  enter- 
tain and  pursued  a  course  which  was  contrary  to  my  own  convic- 
tion of  what  was  right.  Now  the  truth  is  that  the  nomination  of 
Mr.  Van  Buren  as  Minister  to  England  was  seized  upon  as  a 
suitable  occasion  for  making  up  an  issue  between  the  two  parties 
as  to  his  merits  as  a  member  of  General  Jackson's  administration. 
His  whole  conduct,  and  especially  his  instructions  to  Mr.  McLane 
in  relation  to  the  West  India  trade,  came  up  for  discussion  and  for 
condemnation  or  approval,  and  the  vote  was  regarded  as  a  test 
question  between  the  parties.  In  my  deliberate  judgment  it  was 
unwise  and  impolitic  in  the  opposition  to  make  up  such  an  issue  on 
the  question  then  before  the  Senate.  I  believed,  as  it  has  turned 
out,  that  the  rejection  of  the  nomination  would  make  Mr.  Van  Buren 
President.  My  political  friends  thought  otherwise;  the  issue  was 
made  up  between  the  parties  and  Mr.  Van  Buren  put  upon  his  trial. 
Compelled  to  take  ground  upon  one  side  or  the  other  of  the  issue 
thus  presented,  I  acted  in  conformity  with  my  own  convictions 
in  giving  my  verdict  against  him.  The  grounds  on  which  I  then 
acted  are  fully  explained  in  the  speech  delivered  by  me  on  that 


496  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

occasion.  This  explanation  is  due  to  myself  and  to  the  truth  of 
the  case.  In  the  controversy  now  going  on  between  the  friends  of 
Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Van  Buren,  I  take  no  part.  I  am  otherwise  and, 
I  trust,  better  employed."  l  As  has  been  before  pointed  out,  the 
grounds  upon  which  Hayne  had  based  his  vote  for  rejection,  viz.  Van 
Buren's  responsibility  for  a  breach  between  Jackson  and  Calhoun, 
were  insufficient;  but  when  we  realize  that  Hayne  then  thought 
the  rejection  impolitic,  while  Calhoun,  according  to  Benton,  had  said 
in  his  presence :  "It  will  kill  him  sir;  kill  him,  dead — "  2  the  result 
surely  should  have  been  something  of  a  lesson  to  Calhoun  as  to  the 
fallibility  of  his  judgment  occasionally;  and  brought  up  at  this 
time  was  a  powerful  argument  against  his  opposition  to  the  French 
Broad  route;  for  it  was  an  illustration  of  how  wrong  he  could  be. 
Unfortunately,  with  many  great  and  noble  qualities,  Calhoun  had 
the  usual  failing  of  a  strong  mind,  a  belief  in  himself  which  nothing 
could  shake.  The  French  Broad  was,  in  his  opinion,  the  wrong 
route,  and  hence  he  spared  no  effort  to  hamper  it,  even  while 
connected  with  it.  His  resignation  seems  almost  to  have  been 
thought  by  him  sufficient  to  stop  the  work ;  but  as  it  did  not,  be- 
neath the  shelter  of  his  name  and  fame,  enemies  again  attacked  it 
from  various  quarters.  Especially  one  Brisbane,  who  had  been  em- 
ployed at  one  time  by  the  Louisville,  Cincinnati  and  Charleston 
Railroad,  quotes  Calhoun  as  favoring  a  junction  with  Georgia,  and 
denounces  the  French  Broad  route  as  "an  incubus."  In  reply  to 
him  a  writer  asserted  that  so  far  from  there  being  any  possibility  of 
a  junction,  that  the  stockholders  of  the  Athens  Road  had  ordered  a 
gauge  of  two  or  four  inches  narrower  to  prevent  it.3  These  pieces 
so  filled  the  papers  that  Hayne  felt  obliged  to  enter  into  some  dis- 
cussion of  the  road  prior  to  the  approaching  annual  meeting.  But 
in  the  meantime  it  was  apparent  from  other  communications  that  the 

1  Courier,  April  27,  1839.         3  Benton,  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  Vol.  1,  p.  219. 
3  Courier,  May  21,  1839. 


KING'S   LETTER   ON   THE   BANK  ELECTIONS  497 

Hamburg  Road  was  not  prospering  as  it  should,  and  the  complaint 
was  freely  made  that  the  charges  on  handling  cotton  in  Charleston 
were  driving  trade  to  Savannah.  On  only  one  item  did  the  charge 
for  Savannah  exceed  that  stated  to  be  the  charge  at  Charleston, 
viz.  insurance  19  cents  a  bale,  while  the  excess  of  charges  for 
wharfage  and  drayage  made  the  handling  so  much  more  expensive 
for  the  consignor  to  Charleston  as  to  have  inevitably  driven  some 
trade  away.  It  is  unnecessary  to  go  into  the  details  and  accurately 
balance  accusation  against  defence ;  it  was  apparent  that  there  was 
something  in  the  complaints ;  and  so  while  Charleston  was  striv- 
ing for  direct  trade  with  Europe,  and  Hayne  and  his  associates 
struggling  to  push  through  the  great  Western  Railroad,  she  was 
failing  to  use,  to  the  greatest  degree,  the  advantages  that  she  al- 
ready possessed.  The  picture  presented  of  this  far-sighted  states- 
man bending  every  energy  to  carry  through  this  projected  road,  to 
secure  for  his  section  the  market  without  which  their  dreams  of 
direct  trade  with  Europe  would  dissolve  as  a  mirage,  and  those 
whom  he  strove  so  earnestly  to  help  permitting  this  ham-stringing 
process  to  go  on  from  year  to  year,  is  not  pleasant.  Finally,  in 
July,  Hayne  replied,  denying  the  "  reports  most  industriously 
circulated,  .  .  .  that  all  idea  of  pushing  the  railroad  further  than 
Columbia,  the  capital  of  South  Carolina,  has  been  given  up." 
Entering  into  some  detail,  he  showed  what  had  been  done.  How 
the  Charleston  and  Hamburg  Road  had  been  improved,  and  the 
confident  expectation  "  that  under  its  improved  organization  the 
future  receipts  of  the  road  will  afford  a  satisfactory  profit  on  the 
amount  invested  in  it."  He  stated  that  the  entire  66  miles  from 
Branchville  to  Columbia  was  under  contract,  and  a  large  part  had 
been  graded  and  that  it  was  expected  by  the  winter  that  the  portion 
from  Branchville  to  Orangeburg  would  be  in  operation.  Two- 
thirds  of  the  price  of  the  Hamburg  Road  had  been  paid,  and  a  bank 
established  which  in  six  months  had  paid  a  dividend  of  8  per 

2K 


498  ROBERT  Y.  HAYNE 

cent ; *  while  no  further  instalment  would  be  called  for  before  October. 
Yet  in  spite  of  this  plain  statement,  the  publications  continued, 
until,  all  out  of  patience,  the  Mercury  declared  it  not  surprising 
that  "a  suspicion  was  entertained  by  our  country  friends  that 
there  is  a  party  in  this  city  who  are  predetermined  not  to  suffer 
the  road  to  be  carried  beyond  Columbia."  2 

1  Courier,  July  12,  1839.  a  Mercury,  Aug.  16,  1839. 


CHAPTER  XI 

INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA  IN  1 83 9.  IMPORT 
AND  EXPORT  TRADE,  NORTH  AND  SOUTH.  SOUTH  CAROLINA 
AS    VIEWED    BY    HER    OWN    PRESS.      THE    SLAVE    TRADE 

Before  taking  up  the  last  act  in  the  life  of  Hayne  and  attempting 
a  description  of  the  battle  which  was  joined  by  the  representatives 
of  the  two  contending  factions  of  the  stockholders,  upon  the  read- 
ing of  the  president's  report  of  1839,  most  fittingly  concluded  with 
the  announcement  of  his  death  and  the  apparent  contemporaneous 
collapse  of  the  great  enterprise,  some  consideration  of  the  then 
condition  of  Charleston  and  the  State  whose  future  was  so  depend- 
ent upon  the  success  of  this  project  must  be  attempted.  It  was 
almost  twenty-one  years  since  Hayne  had  made  his  great  speech 
in  the  South  Carolina  Legislature  against  the  unrestricted  impor- 
tation of  slaves  from  other  States,  in  opposition  to  the  advocacy 
of  the  same  by  McDuffie.  The  cultivation  of  cotton  had  been 
tremendously  increased,  and  in  the  year  1838  South  Carolina  had 
raised  for  the  market  220,000  bales,  about  one-sixth  of  the  total 
crop.  Although  of  smaller  area  than  either  Georgia  or  Louisiana, 
she  had  slightly  exceeded  both,  but  had  been  greatly  surpassed  by 
Mississippi  and  slightly  by  Alabama.  Of  the  half  million  bales 
harvested  in  the  South  Atlantic  States,  Charleston  had,  through 
the  Charleston  and  Hamburg  Road,  the  best  facilities  for  market- 
ing; but  we  have  seen  that  there  were  complaints  as  to  the  ex- 
pense of  handling,  and  certainly  there  was  one  argument  in  support 
of  this  claim  hard  to  brush  aside  and  of  profound  importance  at  this 

499 


500  ROBERT  Y.    HAYNE 

juncture.  We  have  seen  that  the  property  had  been  bought  at  a 
liberal  price ;  and,  without  regard  to  expense  where  efficiency  was 
concerned,  had  been  put  in  thorough  order  with  the  reasonable 
hope  of  greatly  increased  freight.  In  the  amount  received  from 
passenger  fares  this  had  been  borne  out,  and  the  slight  excess 
received  in  the  travel  one  way  had  been  to  Charleston.  For  the 
carriage  of  United  States  mail  the  increase  had  been  33  per  cent, 
and  the  freight  for  the  half  year,  out  of  Charleston,  was  what  could 
have  been  expected,  $59,203.39.  But  when  an  examination  was 
made  of  the  freight  to  Charleston,  in  spite  of  the  magnificent 
cotton  crop,  there  was  a  most  unaccountable  falling  off,  the  freight 
to  Charleston  for  the  half  year  amounting  only  to  $1 7,306.45. 1 
Charleston  simply  was  not  getting  the  cotton  by  the  road,  if  she 
was  getting  it  at  all,  which  was  a  question,  and  coupled  with  the 
complaints  of  the  previous  year  it  looked  as  if  port  charges  were 
killing  the  business  of  the  port. 

A  consideration  of  tax  returns  for  the  year  gives  some  idea 
of  the  condition  of  Charleston,  its  business  and  the  character 
of  its  population.  The  real  estate,  valued  at  $13,03 1,69s,2 
yielded  $52,126.79  in  the  way  of  tax.  Sales  amounting  in 
the  year  to  $14,114,285  yielded  a  tax  of  $28,228.  Two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-three  coaches  were  returned  for  taxation,  and 
each  at  $25  yielded  $5,575.  With  regard  to  the  less  preten- 
tious vehicle  of  the  leisure  class,  only  74  carriages  were  returned 
taxed  at  $12.50  apiece,  and  bringing  in  $925;  while  of  the  modest 
two-wheeled  chairs  but  89  were  returned,  which,  taxed  at  $6  apiece, 
brought  in  $588.  With  regard  to  horse  flesh,  793  horses  were 
returned  for  taxation  and,  taxed  without  regard  to  value  at  $6 
apiece,  yielded  $4,758. .  Dogs,  however,  were  returned  at  differing 
values,  503  at  $2  apiece,  46  at  $3  apiece  and  one  at  $5,  a  total  dog 
tax  of   $1,149.     The  slave  tax  yielded  $26,548,  446  being  taxed 

1  Courier,  Aug.  14,  1839.  2  Ibid.,  Aug.  22,  1839. 


TRADE,   NORTH  AND   SOUTH  501 

at  $5  apiece,  7,881  at  $2.50  apiece  and  3,171  at  $1.50  apiece. 
Of  the  free  colored  persons  residing  in  the  city,  445  paid  the 
assessed  tax  on  such,  76  mechanics  $10  apiece,  44  laborers  $8 
apiece  and  25  males  under  eighteen  years  of  age  $5  apiece.  In 
addition  to  this,  242  described  only  as  free  persons  of  color,  over 
eighteen  years  of  age,  were  taxed  at  $5  apiece,  while  40  under 
eighteen  paid  only  $3  apiece.  Judging  from  the  number  of  free 
colored  persons  residing  in  the  city,  some  one  thousand  and 
over  must  have  escaped  this  tax.  The  large  number  of  coaches 
should  not  be  considered  as  simply  the  ostentatious  vehicles  of 
the  wealthy ;  numbers  no  doubt  represented  the  vehicles  of  trans- 
portation agencies.  In  addition  to  the  above,  a  tax  on  incomes, 
returned  at  $910,925,  gave  $4,554.62.  Whatever  may  be  said  of 
this  ante  helium  Southern  scheme  of  taxation,  in  contrast  to  the 
perniciously  deceptive  Northern  scheme  of  uniform  rate,  which 
Reconstruction  imposed  and  short-sighted  legislation  has  retained, 
something  like  70  per  cent  of  the  taxation  was  borne  by  the  wealthy. 
Real  estate  at  4  mills,  and  slaves  on  a  per  capita  supplied  60  per 
cent,  and  articles  in  their  nature  pertaining  more  to  luxuries  than 
necessities  furnished  another  10  per  cent.  Sales  at  only  2  mills 
yielded  about  20  per  cent,  leaving  apparently  only  about  10  per 
cent  to  fall  upon  the  humbler  classes.  If  this  scheme  prevailed 
throughout  the  South,  there  is  no  reason  to  wonder  why  the  poorer 
classes  supported  the  slave-holders  as  faithfully  as  they  did. 
With  regard  to  exports,  the  contention  of  Hayne  and  others  who 
had  fought  so  valiantly  for  tariff  reform  seemed  verified  in  the 
volume  which  went  out  from  the  Southern  ports,  in  1838,  footing 
up  in  value  for  South  Carolina  $11,042,070,  surpassed  only  by 
Louisiana  and  New  York,  the  total  value  of  exports  from  the 
South  rising  to  $65,000,000  as  against  $40,000,000  from  the  rest 
of  the  country.  The  Mississippi  gave  Louisiana  almost  half  of 
that  which  went  out  from  the  South,  and  New  York's  magnificent 


r 


502  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

canal  system  was  probably  the  main  cause  of  more  than  half  of 
that  passing  out  there  from  the  North.  But  when  we  consider 
the  imports,  Louisiana,  with  the  Mississippi  to  help  her  to  more 
than  a  local  market,  was  the  only  Southern  State  the  value  of  whose 
imports,  $9,469,808,  could  compare  to  that  of  her  Northern 
competitors,  and  even  she  fell  behind  Massachusetts,  with  her 
$13,300,925,  and  far  below  New  York,  with  her  immense  volume, 
$68,453,206.  South  Carolina,  the  second  Southern  State  in  this 
list,  did  not  import  goods  of  one-half  the  value  of  Maryland,  the 
least  of  Northern  importers;  while  the  combined  importations  of 
Virginia,  Georgia  and  Alabama  did  not  equal  that  of  South  Car- 
olina. With  the  reform  of  the  tariff  a  flood  was  pouring  in. 
From  1824  to  183 1  the  excess  of  value  of  imports  over  exports  had 
amounted  to  $11,000,000;  but  in  the  succeeding  seven  years  it 
had  increased  to  $188,000,000/  bringing  about  the  condi- 
tion of  affairs  old  Charles  Pinckney  had  warned  against,  in  18 19, 
when  he  had  declared  in  Congress  that  a  country  mainly  agricul- 
tural, and  without  mines  of  the  precious  metals,  could  not  have 
its  imports  greatly  in  excess  of  exports  without  financial  disaster. 
Of  all  the  Southern  statesmen  striving  to  assist  their  section,  none 
seemed  to  appreciate  this,  and  none  as  clearly  as  Hayne,  the  other 
truth,  that  without  more  than  a  local  market  the  volume  of  imports 
could  not  grow  with  the  exports;  but  in  addition  he  had  also 
pointed  out  the  supreme  necessity  of  meeting  the  effects  of  the 
wasteful  cultivation  and  speedily  worn-out  lands,  incidental  to 
slave  labor,  with  some  other  mode  of  utilizing  capital  and  afford- 
ing employment  to  retain  population,  drifting  away.  The  State 
censuses  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  of  this  year  proved  his 
claim  only  too  truly,  that  the  ordinary  individual  will  not  bother 
with  the  slow  process  of  renovating  exhausted  land,  when  fresh 
virgin  soil  is  in  easy  reach.     While  the  white  population  of  Georgia 

1  Courier,  Oct.  18,  1839. 


TRADE,   NORTH  AND   SOUTH  503 

had  increased  over  200,000,  that  of  South  Carolina  in  the  same 
time  had  only  risen  6,236.  The  emigration  he  spoke  of  was  pro- 
ceeding steadily,  and  probably,  as  is  usually  the  case,  taking  off 
the  most  virile.  The  people  of  South  Carolina  were  still  a  brave, 
high-toned,  honorable  population  in  the  main ;  but  there  seems  to 
have  been  some  evidence  that  they  were  not  of  as  strong  a  fibre  as 
they  apparently  had  been  prior  to  and  just  after  the  War  of  181 2. 
They  seemed  to  have  lost  some  elements  of  strength  which  the 
people  of  the  States  on  either  side  of  them  seemed  in  a  greater 
measure  to  have  retained.  Considering  the  wealth  of  Charleston, 
the  inhabitants,  in  the  opinion  of  the  local  press,  had  not  made  the 
efforts  in  behalf  of  their  railroad  which  the  smaller  town  of  Wil- 
mington had  for  theirs.  The  two  morning  papers  of  Charleston 
were  fine  representatives  of  the  journalism  of  the  day.  They  criti- 
cised their  constituency,  and  did  it  intelligently  and  patriotically 
in  the  effort  to  arouse  the  people.  While  giving  a  fair  hearing  to 
both  sides  in  the  controversy  now  raging  over  the  great  Western 
Road,  they  pointed  out  that  Wilmington,  while  much  smaller  and 
poorer,  was  making  an  effort  (out  of  all  proportion  to  that  which 
Charleston  was  making  for  the  Louisville  and  Cincinnati  Road) 
in  behalf  of  the  Wilmington,  Roanoke  and  Charleston  Railroad, 
of  which  130  miles  had  been  completed,  and  so  (while  unnoticed), 
with  the  connection  with  Northern  lines,  a  still  stronger  hold  on 
importation  would  be  secured  by  the  Northern  ports.  Com- 
menting on  the  formation  of  the  Georgia  Historical  Society,  under 
the  presidency  of  the  Honorable  John  M.  Berrien,  the  Courier  in- 
quired, "  Would  not  our  city  do  well  to  follow  the  example  of  her 
Southern  sister?  "  But  the  frank  criticism  which  follows  involves 
much  more  than  a  question  confined  to  literature  or  history. 
Says  that  paper:  "We  are  sadly  deficient  in  literary  spirit  and 
enterprise,  and  lack  steadiness  of  purpose  in  support  of  institutions 
for  the  encouragement  and  diffusion  of  literature  and  art.     Our 


504  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Academy  of  Arts  has  long  since  had  its  obituary  written,  and  its 
successor,  the  Academy  of  Art  and  Design  has,  we  fear,  perished 
in  its  birth.  Our  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  and  our 
noble  Charleston  Library  are  dragging  out  a  languishing  existence. 
Our  Southern  Literary  Journal  has  gone  to  the  tomb  of  the  Capu- 
lets,  etc."  * 

Without  possibly  any  bearing  on  this,  or  probably  involving  the 
Northern  as  much  as  the  Southern  merchants  in  whatever  of  con- 
demnation was  due,  nevertheless,  the  same  issue  of  the  paper 
published  an  extract  from  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce 
to  the  effect  that  twenty-three  vessels,  under  the  American  flag, 
had  sailed  about  that  time  from  Havana  on  the  slave  trade. 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  very  day  following  his  last  letter  to 
Hayne  wishing  the  road  and  himself  "  great  success,"  Calhoun  had 
expressed  the  hope  to  one  interested  in  another  route  that  within 
a  year  "the  infatuation  in  favor  of  the  French  Broad  route"  might 
have  weakened  sufficiently  to  allow  that  "the  move  you  desire  may 
be  made  with  advantage,"  and  expressed  his  belief  that  that  "in 
time  would  be  the  great  route."  This  did  not  prevent  him  from 
expressing  the  opinion  some  months  later  with  regard  to  the  Georgia 
road  system,  that  it  opened  to  the  States  as  high  up  as  Illinois 
"the  cheapest  and  safest  route  at  all  seasons,  not  only  to  the 
Atlantic  portion  of  the  Union,  but  also  to  the  general  markets  of 
the  world."2  If  the  Louisville,  Cincinnati  and  Charleston  Road 
could  ever  push  through  North  Carolina  to  Tennessee,  it  therefore 
appeared  that  Calhoun's  reputation  as  an  adviser  in  matters  in- 
dustrial would  be  practically  destroyed;  for  he  had  put  himself 
in  absolute  opposition  to  it,  and,  with  anything  like  success  for  it, 
there  would  be  inevitably  a  loss  of  prestige  to  him  who  had  fought 
it  so  continuously. 

1  Courier }  Aug.  27,  1839.  3  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  430. 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE  LAST  MEETING  OF  THE  STOCKHOLDERS  OF  THE  LOUISVILLE, 
CINCINNATI  AND  CHARLESTON  RAILROAD  WHICH  HAYNE  AT- 
TENDED.     THE    CONTEST    AT    THE    MEETING 

On  September  16,  1839,  the  last  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of 
the  Louisville,  Cincinnati  and  Charleston  Railroad  Company, 
at  which  Hayne  was  present,  was  held  at  Asheville,  North  Car- 
olina. He  was  then  suffering  with  fever,  with  which  he  had  been 
stricken  the  day  previous,  and  which  the  stormy  meeting  aggra- 
vated. His  third  annual  report  was  described  as  an  able  and 
elaborate  document,  exhibiting  the  transactions  of  the  company 
for  the  past  year,  the  progress  of  the  construction  of  the  road  be- 
tween Branchville  and  Columbia  and  the  success  of  the  surveys 
between  Columbia  and  Butt  Mountain,  with  a  view  of  the  proposed 
location  of  the  route,  should  it  be  deemed  advisable  by  the  stock- 
holders.1 Maps  and  profiles  of  all  routes  from  Columbia  to  the 
mountains  were  also  exhibited  by  the  chief  engineer,  Major 
McNeill,  which  reflected  much  credit  on  engineers  Cheeseborough 
and  Scott,  employed  in  that  special  capacity.  From  the  outset  it 
was  apparent  that  there  was  an  acute  difference  of  opinion;  but 
from  the  newspaper  reports  of  the  day  it  is  difficult  to  locate  the 
position  of  all  the  many  speakers  with  exactness.  The  debate 
was  spirited  and  at  times  acrimonious,  and  after  Hayne' s  with- 
drawal, after  the  first  day,  on  account  of  his  increased  illness, 
it  raged  with  but  little  intermission  for  two  or  three  days.     As 

1  Courier,  Sept.  19,  1839,  et  seq. 
505 


506  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

well  as  can  be  gathered  from  the  rather  disjointed  account,  Colonel 
Gadsden  led  the  assault,  and  Mr.  Alfred  Huger  as  unreservedly 
defended  the  course  of  the  company.  Judge  D.  E.  Huger  de- 
fended the  action  of  the  company  also,  but  in  a  more  apologetic 
tone,  and  Vardry  McBee  of  Greenville,  and  Clingman  of  North 
Carolina,  were  on  the  same  side.  Mr.  C.  G.  Memminger,  although 
in  the  past  somewhat  closely  identified  with  the  work,  seems  to 
have  been  more  of  a  critic  than  a  defender.  I.  E.  Holmes  appears 
to  have  attacked,  while  Elmore  and  Mitchell  King  defended; 
but  what  was  the  position  of  Henry  A.  Middleton,  personally 
very  close  to  Hayne,  is  difficult  to  gather  from  the  newspaper 
comment. 

On  the  convening  of  the  meeting,  Joseph  Carson  of  Ruther- 
fordton,  North  Carolina,  was  called  to  the  chair,  Vardry  McBee, 
of  Greenville,  South  Carolina,  was  put  at  the  head  of  the  committee 
to  verify  proxies,  and  on  motion  of  Congressman  I.  E.  Holmes 
of  Charleston  District,  the  president's  report  was  referred  to  a 
committee.  Mr.  Holmes  stated  that  he  represented  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  stock  held  in  Charleston,  was  in  favor  of  a  thorough 
investigation  and  for  going  on  with  the  enterprise,  if  it  was  found 
consistent  with  the  honor  and  interest  of  all  concerned,  but  was 
desirous  of  suspension  of  the  work,  if  necessary,  to  avoid  bank- 
ruptcy and  ruin.  As  to  the  constitution  of  the  committee,  he  dif- 
fered with  Judge  Huger,  who  declared  great  differences  of  opin- 
ion existed,  and  who  stated  that  he  favored  proceeding  formally, 
in  order  to  allay  excitement;  he  therefore  opposed  the  motion  to 
refer  the  whole  report  and  all  papers  to  one  committee.  The 
president,  on  request,  then  entered  into  explanations  with  regard 
to  some  of  the  principal  items,  and  Major  McNeill,  the  chief  en- 
gineer, being  called  upon  for  an  explanation  why  the  cost  of  the 
road  above  Columbia  was  by  estimate  less  than  below,  his  replies 
seem  to  have  been  accepted  as  reasonable.     On  further  inquiry, 


LAST   MEETING   OF   HAYNE   WITH   STOCKHOLDERS    507 

the  president  stated  that  there  had  as  yet  been  no  forfeiture  of 
stock  for  non-payment;  that  subscriptions  out  of  the  State  were 
so  far  only  available  for  surveys ;  that  the  purchase  of  the  Hamburg 
Road  had  entailed  an  expenditure  of  $2,800,000;  that  the  company 
had  no  pledge  of  any  further  contribution  from  North  Carolina 
in  the  event  of  the  road  being  extended  to  the  State  line,  and  de- 
pended upon  the  good-will  and  grant  of  banking  privileges  from 
that  State.  The  engineers  estimated  the  cost  of  the  road  from  the 
State  line  to  Knoxville  to  be  about  $4,000,000.  This  ended  the 
first  day,  the  correspondent  of  the  Courier,  in  conclusion,  stating 
that  some  sixty  or  seventy  persons  were  in  attendance,  and  some 
anxiety  felt  at  first  that  the  road  west  of  Columbia  would  be  aban- 
doned ;  but  that,  at  the  close  of  that  day,  the  friends  of  the  road  had 
acquired  more  confidence.1  On  the  17th  the  meeting  reconvened, 
and  McBee  reported  56,929  shares  represented.  Clingman  moved 
now  the  reference  of  the  president's  report,  with  all  accompanying 
documents,  to  a  committee  of  thirteen,  with  power  to  call  officers 
before  them  and  examine  them  upon  the  various  matters.  Judge 
Huger  seems  again  to  have  opposed  the  reference  of  everything  to 
the  same  committee.  Clingman' s  motion  seems,  however,  to  have 
prevailed;  and  yet  he  was  not  of  the  committee,  which  consisted 
of  D.  E.  Huger,  Blake,  Middleton,  Ervin,  Daniel  Campbell, 
Holmes,  Alfred  Huger,  Robertson,  Earle,  Memminger,  Woodfine, 
Gadsden  and  McBee.  Apart  from  a  description  of  the  president's 
report,  which  states  that  it  was  able  and  elaborate,  recommended 
economy  and  a  single-track  railroad  with  turnouts  every  five  or 
six  miles,  nothing  is  obtainable,  and  as  a  part  only  of  the  report 
of  the  committee  of  thirteen  ever  saw  the  light,  the  investigator 
must  pick  his  way  with  caution.  The  committee  of  thirteen 
seems  to  have  been  divided  into  sub-committees,  thereby  bringing 
about  what  Judge  Huger  was  contending  for,  and  to  him  had  been 

1  Courier,  Sept.  21,  1839. 


508  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

assigned  the  preparation  of  a  general  report  for  the  committee, 
which  seemed  to  have  been  in  the  nature  of  an  adjustment  or 
compromise  between  the  warring  elements.  It  disclosed  that 
the  company  had  to  find  $1,500,000  in  twelve  months.  He  stated 
that  inasmuch  as  the  property  of  the  country  at  the  inception  of 
the  project  had  been  worth  double  what  it  was  at  the  time  he 
was  speaking,  and  the  country  had  been  agitated  by  the  revulsion 
from  one  end  to  the  other,  it  was  surprising  to  him  that  the  com- 
pany had  accomplished  as  much  as  it  appeared  it  had,  and  that 
as  an  American,  a  Carolinian  and  a  Southern  man,  he  hoped  the 
work  would  ultimately  be  carried  through,  as  he  considered  it 
the  greatest  ever  attempted  in  any  nation.  Apparently  at  least 
two  reports  from  the  sub-committees  were  before  the  meeting, 
and  it  would  appear  from  that  of  which  C.  G.  Memminger 
was  chairman,  after  several  subsequent  corrections  in  subse- 
quent publications,1  that  the  sum  total  of  the  three  instal- 
ments, 15  per  cent  of  the  subscription  collected,  amounted  to 
$787,503,  to  which  was  added  $10,000  from  the  earnings  of  the 
Hamburg  Road,  and  $2,217,227  borrowed  from  the  banks  of  the 
city  of  Charleston  and  obtained  by  sale  of  bonds  guaranteed  by 
the  State.  In  the  three  years  in  which  the  enterprise  had  been 
pushed,  there  had  been  expended  for  the  engineer's  department, 
for  surveys,  instruments,  office  expenses,  salaries  and  contingencies, 
$265,751.  On  account  of  purchase  of  the  Hamburg  Road  there 
had  been  paid  $1,590,160  principal  and  $54,354  interest,  and 
$214,528  expended  in  repairs  and  improvement.  That  on  the 
construction  of  the  road  from  Branchville  to  Columbia,  $328,704 
had  been  paid  out  for  work  and  $2,803  to  secure  rights  of  way. 
That  for  the  negotiation  of  the  European  loan  by  which  the  com- 
pany had  received  $1,383,629,  the  agent  had  been  paid  $20,336. 
That  a  dividend  amounting  to  $10,336  had  been  paid,  and  $13,825 

1  Courier,  Oct.  8,  22,  1839. 


LAST   MEETING   OF   HAYNE   WITH   STOCKHOLDERS    509 

refunded  the  stockholders  of  the  Hamburg  Road,  and  one-half  of 
the  amount  loaned  by  the  Charleston  banks  for  purchase  of  the  Ham- 
burg Road,  $377,656,  had  been  repaid.  That  there  was  due  and 
payable  still  on  the  Hamburg  Road  $795,000,  which  had  to  be  met 
in  three  months,  with  interest  charges  on  this  and  other  accounts 
amounting  to  $111,300.  That  there  was  due  the  Charleston 
banks  $344,000:  for  iron,  $255,000;  and  for  construction  account 
under  contract,  $552,696;  and  to  the  banks  of  Columbia,  $40,000. 
It  was  estimated  that  on  the  semi-annual  interest  payments  for  the 
$2,000,000  bond  guarantee,  shares  not  yet  secured  from  the  Charles- 
ton and  Hamburg  stockholders,  engineers'  department  and  salaries, 
there  would  be  due  $144,776;  and  to  complete  the  road  to  Colum- 
bia, in  addition  to  outstanding  contracts,  $584,304.  The  resources 
of  the  company,  cash  in  hand  and  bonds  guaranteed  by  the  State, 
were  put  at  $715,821,  under  which,  however,  $41,516  was  not 
available  for  work  in  South  Carolina.  By  estimating  $210,000 
as  the  response,  seven  instalments  would  be  necessary  to  meet 
existing  engagements,  and  three  more,  which  thirteen  is  mistakenly 
called  a  total  of  eleven,  to  carry  the  road  to  Columbia.  But  to  offset 
this,  the  thirteen,  at  $5,  are  described  as  representing  $75,  when 
they  only  represented  $65,  and  the  claim,  therefore,  at  the  end  of 
this  report  that  it  establishes  the  proposition  that  75  per  cent  of 
the  subscription  was  necessary  to  complete  the  road  to  Columbia, 
is  not  borne  out  by  the  figures.  As,  in  the  opinion  of  Mr. 
Memminger,  in  the  condition  of  the  country,  it  would  be  vain 
to  call  for  these  instalments,  his  advice  was  to  borrow  the  neces- 
sary amount  and  press  on  the  work  to  Columbia.  In  conclusion, 
the  report  says:  "  Your  committee  have  deemed  it  their  duty  thus  to 
spread  before  you  as  full  and  clear  a  view  of  the  premises  as  their 
limited  time  would  permit.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  some 
errors  may  be  found  in  the  statements  so  hurriedly  prepared 
from  the  imperfect  material  in  their  reach ;  at  all  events,  they  trust 


510  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

they  will  at  least  tend  to  a  more  thorough  understanding  of  the 
affairs  of  the  company."  While  this  was  a  very  frank  admission, 
the  report,  in  spite  of  all  subsequent  corrections,  was  injurious 
and  misleading.  Instead  of  leaving  only  $1,050,000  of  stock  not 
called  for,  with  the  road  completed  to  Columbia,  on  his  basis  of 
calculation,  it  really  seems  to  leave  $1,470,000,  with  the  earnings 
of  the  completed  road  running  from  Augusta  and  Columbia  to 
Charleston,  to  supply  the  estimated  $310,000  additional  needed 
to  carry  it  to  the  North  Carolina  line.  But  why  was  42,750  made 
the  basis  of  the  shares  held  in  South  Carolina,  when  the  South 
Carolina  subscriptions  totalled  60,000  ?  It  may  have  been  entirely 
the  hard  times  which  had  caused  the  stockholders  to  become 
delinquent  in  their  third  payment  to  the  degree  which  appeared; 
but  when  we  realize,  as  an  inspection  of  the  statement  reveals, 
that,  although  the  hard  times  had  arrived,  between  the  first  and 
second  instalment  the  South  Carolina  stockholders  had  subscribed 
for  and  paid  for  the  second  instalment,  on  over  a  million  ad- 
ditional shares,  there  is  some  reason  to  suspect,  as  the  Mercury 
had  charged,  that  there  was  a  party  who  were  "  predetermined  not 
to  suffer  the  road  to  be  carried  beyond  Columbia."  It  must  be 
admitted,  in  all  fairness  to  the  South  Carolinians,  that  the  effort 
or  lack  of  effort  in  behalf  of  the  road  outside  the  State  of  South 
Carolina  was  calculated  to  dishearten  its  supporters.  The  Ken- 
tucky subscribers  had  not  paid  but  the  first  instalment,  while  the 
response  of  North  Carolina  had  shrunk  more  than  50  per  cent  from 
the  first  to  the  third  instalment;  yet  South  Carolina  had  under- 
taken the  project,  with  the  full  knowledge  of  this  lukewarm 
interest,  and  to  her  the  road  was  of  more  vital  interest. 

There  seems  to  have  been  at  least  10,000  shares  represented  at 
the  meeting,  which  had  not  paid  the  third  instalment,  yet  the 
meeting  was  in  a  captious  mood.  Criticism  was  directed  against 
the  contracts  given  to  planters  to  be  executed  with  slave  labor. 


X 


LAST   MEETING   OF   HAYNE  WITH   STOCKHOLDERS    511 

Why,  it  was  asked,  had  not  this  work  been  given  to  Northern 
contractors,  who  had  offered  to  execute  it  at  a  price  12 J  to  15  per 
cent  cheaper?  The  answer  was  comprehensive.  The  planters 
objected  to  imported  free  labor  being  brought  into  contact  with 
their  slaves.  This  was  unfortunate;  but  the  company  could  not 
antagonize  an  element  which  practically  controlled  the  State ;  and, 
in  addition,  they  had  in  many  instances  given  the  right  of  way. 
But  further  still,  when  the  chief  engineer  obtained  the  floor,  he 
challenged  the  correctness  of  the  charge.  Finally,  a  preamble  and 
resolutions  were  offered,  which,  reciting  the  disturbed  condition 
of  the  country,  declared,  without  the  united  assistance  of  the  States, 
through  whose  territories  the  road  was  to  pass,  the  work  could 
not  be  accomplished,  and,  unless  they  cooperated,  the  company 
would  be  unable  to  progress  with  the  enterprise,  and  the  debate 
then  became  very  animated.  Judge  Huger  was  desirous  that  facts 
not  in  the  reports  should  also  be  known  by  the  public.  Mr.  Cling- 
man  proposed  that  both  reports  should  be  laid  upon  the  table,  as 
otherwise,  he  said,  he  would  be  called  upon  to  vote  regarding  facts 
he  did  not  understand  concerning  the  statement  of  which  it  was 
admitted  there  were  errors  and  different  opinions.  Mr.  Holmes 
hoped  both  reports  would  be  published.  Mr.  Clingman  pointed 
out  that  the  engineer  had  recommended  Branchville  as  a  proper 
place  for  junction  with  the  Hamburg  Road,  and  that  the  president 
and  directors  had  adopted  it;  but  that  one  of  the  reports  stated 
that  another  point  would  have  been  better.  This  brought  Colonel 
Gadsden  to  his  feet  in  advocacy  of  the  adoption  of  that  report, 
although  he  thought  too  much  had  been  published.  He  said 
much  would  come  before  the  directors,  as  they  had  investigations 
to  make  and  errors  to  correct  which  ought  not  to  be  published, 
the  resolutions  being  all  that  it  was  needed  to  have  published. 
Continuing,  he  declared  that  if  there  were  errors  in  the  report, 
if  gentlemen  would  point  them  out,  he  would  correct  them.    He 


512  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

claimed  he  had  long  seen  the  difficulties  of  the  company,  and  he 
did  not  believe  it  had  the  means,  unless  the  State  would  furnish 
them.  Mr.  Clingman  moved  to  table  both  reports,  to  avoid 
further  discussion.  Judge  Huger  observed  that  the  reports  had 
been  read  and  resolutions  agreed  to.  He  regretted  any  misunder- 
standing. Mr.  Alfred  Huger  said  he  was  displeased  in  part  with 
both  reports  and  had  reserved  the  right  to  dissent  from  both.  In 
doing  so,  he  felt  he  was  in  the  performance  of  a  duty  to  the  nation, 
if  not  to  the  world.  He  had  ventured  in  the  enterprise  his  char- 
acter and  a  part  of  his  property.  He  believed  the  locomotive  the 
greatest  of  agents  in  the  promotion  of  security  and  civilization. 
It  was  impossible  that  in  such  a  stupendous  work  some  errors 
should  not  occur;  they  were  incidental  to  the  very  nature  of  the 
work.  He  was  in  favor  of  laying  both  reports  upon  the  table,  as 
best  calculated  to  preserve  harmony.  Mr.  Memminger  said,  if 
there  were  any  good  reasons,  he  was  willing  that  the  reports  should 
not  be  published;  if  there  were  errors,  he  would  correct  them; 
the  facts,  however,  were  necessary  for  all  interested — for  the  public 
and  the  State.  Mr.  Middleton  said,  gentlemen  had  admitted  that 
errors  were  inseparable  from  such  work,  but  yet  were  unwilling 
that  a  report  should  candidly  publish  them.  He  was  willing  that 
any  errors  should  be  corrected,  but  thought  that  candid  statements 
of  the  errors  of  the  company  or  its  agents  should  be  made.  Colonel 
Gadsden  claimed  that  the  contracts  below  Columbia  had  been 
too  high ;  that  the  directors  ought  not  to  have  given  planters  more 
than  Northern  contractors  would  have  worked  for.  He  suggested 
that  transcripts  of  the  reports  might  be  sent  to  the  Legislature 
without  sending  the  whole.  He  thought  the  salaries  of  the  en- 
gineers too  high;  he  asserted  that  $210,000  had  been  spent  in 
that  department ;  but  while  that  was  the  case,  the  report  had  com- 
plimented the  engineers.  Messrs.  Huger  and  Clingman  pressed 
their  motion  to  table,  but  it  was  negatived.    Finally,  on  the  third 


LAST   MEETING   OF   HAYNE  WITH   STOCKHOLDERS     513 

day  of  the  meeting,  after  "considerable  sparring,"  !  it  was  decided, 
on  motion  of  Mitchell  King,  that  so  much  of  the  report  of  the 
committee  of  13  as  related  to  surveys  between  Branchville  and 
Columbia  be  struck  out,  and  on  motion  of  Judge  Huger,  that  the 
report  be  laid  on  the  table;  that  500  copies  of  the  director's  report, 
with  the  accompanying  reports  of  chief  and  resident  engineers, 
and  those  parts  of  the  reports  of  the  committee  of  13  which  related 
to  the  finances  and  the  proceedings  of  the  convention,  be  printed 
under  the  direction  of  the  president  and  directors.  The  president 
and  board  were  given  wide  discretion  to  do  what  they  could 
to  press  on  the  work  as  economically  as  possible  below  Columbia 
and,  in  the  last  resort,  to  appeal  to  the  State  to  enable  them  to 
make  the  last  payment  for  the  Hamburg  Road.  It  was  also  decided 
to  meet  again  on  December  4,  at  Columbia.  A  letter  from  the  cor- 
respondent of  the  Courier  throws  a  little  more  light  on  the  meet- 
ing, and  contains  an  allusion  which  is  pregnant  with  suggestion 
of  an  inpiration  otherwise  not  touched  upon.  "We  have  just 
closed  a  most  interesting  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of  the  Louis- 
ville, Cincinnati  and  Charleston  Railroad,  from  which,  no  doubt, 
great  good  in  the  future  management  of  the  concern  will  arise. 
We  have  resolved  to  suspend  all  surveys  and  operations  beyond 
Columbia,  and  to  limit,  for  the  present,  the  work  on  the  road  to 
that  place  consistently  with  our  means  and  existing  contracts. 
There  will  be  an  adjourned  meeting  of  the  stockholders  on  the  4th 
of  December  at  Columbia,  where  measures  will  be  adopted,  with 
the  assistance  of  the  Legislature,  to  meet  all  the  obligations  growing 
out  of  the  purchase  of  the  Hamburg  Road,  which,  however  wise 
as  a  measure,  has  unquestionably  deranged  our  finances;  as 
the  purchase  was  approved,  however,  by  the  State  it  is  not  to  be 
doubted  (she  being  a  party  largely  interested  in  the  compact) 
that  she  will  furnish  the  aid  necessary  to  the  consummation.     We 

1  Courier,  Sept.  19,  1839. 
2  L 


514  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

should  progress  much  more  harmoniously  in  our  operations  and 
with  a  more  single  eye  to  the  success  of  our  objects,  if  politics  had 
not  insinuated  itself  into  all  of  our  proceedings;  and  a  spectator 
present  at  our  deliberations  and  investigations  would  have  im- 
agined our  simple  meeting  of  stockholders  a  Legislative  body 
settling  and  adjusting  all  the  conflicting  interests  of  a  political 
community,  with  all  the  out-door  and  lobby  influences  distinctly 
distinguishing  such  legislation.  If  it  be  important  to  separate 
Banks  from  State,  it  is  equally  important  to  separate  politics  and 
its  undercurrent  from  the  concerns  of  such  a  corporation  as  the 
Louisville,  Cincinnati  and  Charleston  Railroad  Company.  Their 
object  is  to  build  a  road  in  the  cheapest  and  most  durable  manner 
and,  in  the  employment  of  competent  engineers,  agents,  contrac- 
tors, etc.,  these  considerations  must  govern,  or  the  president  and 
directors  must  be  regardless  of  their  responsibilities.  To  them 
alone  we  must  look,  and  the  basis  on  which  the  stockholders  have 
now  placed  it  will  now  make  that  body  and  its  head  more  sensible 
of  the  fact  that  in  them  alone  we  confide.1" 
1  Courier,  Sept.  ai,  1839. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
hayne's  death  and  the  comments  of  his  contemporaries 

THEREON 

Five  days  after  the  adjournment  of  this  meeting,  Hayne  died  of 
the  fever  which  had  gripped  him  the  day  before  the  gathering  to- 
gether of  the  opposing  forces.  The  announcement  of  his  death 
was  conveyed  to  the  Courier  in  a  letter  from  Major  McNeill,  which 
stated,  "He  was  almost  to  the  last  moment  perfectly  sensible  of 
his  approaching  end,  and  yielded  to  his  destiny  with  that  Christian 
and  becoming  fortitude  which  throughout  life  characterized  him." 
In  the  same  letter  was  conveyed  the  information  that  the  pall- 
bearers were  Major  McNeill,  Count  de  Choiseul,  Frederick  Rut- 
ledge,  Honorable  D.  E.  Huger,Mr.  Ogilbyand  Henry  A.  Middleton. 
With  the  family  were  Judge  Cheves,  Mitchell  King,  Mr.  Edwards, 
the  treasurer  of  the  company,  E.  Cheeseborough,  resident  engineer, 
and  Messrs.  Lowndes  and  Blake.  Thus  passed  away,  in  his  forty- 
seventh  year,  the  only  man  who,  since  the  death  of  William 
Lowndes,  was  strong  enough  before  the  South  Carolina  public 
to  hope  for  any  success  when  differing  from  Calhoun.  The  an- 
nouncement of  his  death  was  made  in  Charleston,  on  September 
30,  and  in  the  Courier  of  that  date  appeared  a  moving  tribute  to 
his  hold  upon  all  classes  of  the  community.  Opposed  to  him  dur- 
ing nullification,  that  paper,  nevertheless,  declared,  "At  an  early 
age  he  was  borne  into  public  life,  on  a  flood  tide  of  popular  favor, 
and  retained  it,  without  ebb  or  abatement,  to  the  hour  of  his 
death."     Speaking  of  the  great  railroad  project,  it  said :  "It  was  in 

515 


516  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

upholding  the  interests  of  this  noble  undertaking,  once  so  fair  in 
its  promise  of  a  glorious  destiny  to  his  cherished  and  cherishing 
city,  but  now  tottering  under  the  pressure  of  the  monied  em- 
barrassments of  the  civilized  world,  that  he  encountered  the  fatal 
disease  which  has  consigned  him  to  a  grave  in  a  strange  land."  1 
Space  does  not  permit  of  more  from  this  heartfelt  eulogy  which 
was  an  epitome  of  his  career,  but  mention  must  be  made  of  some 
other  comments.  James  L.  Petigru,  his  most  brilliant  opponent 
during  the  nullification  episode,  wrote  to  a  friend  under  the  same 
date:  "The  death  of  General  Hayne  has  cast  a  gloom  upon  the 
situation  of  our  affairs.  His  loss  is  as  deeply  felt  as  that  of  any 
person  in  our  community  could  have  been,  perhaps  more  generally 
than  that  of  any  other  man.  He  was  not  quite  48  years  of  age,  and 
had  the  most  uninterrupted  career  of  success  which  any  person  in 
my  time  has  enjoyed."  2  The  Pendleton  Messenger  declared  his 
death  to  be  "a  great  public  calamity."  3  The  Columbia  Temper- 
ance Advocate  said,  "He  reflected  back  upon  his  country  the 
honors  she  so  freely  gave  him."  The  Columbia  Telescope,  in  a 
more  critical  review,  stated :  "  His  talents  were  not  of  that  intense 
brilliancy  which  too  often  dazzles  rather  than  guides,  an  ex- 
cellent judgment  stamping  his  opinions  with  the  impress  of 
usefulness  and  practicability.  As  a  speaker,  without  perhaps 
the  power  of  rising  to  the  sublimest  heights  of  oratory,  he  was 
always  pleasing,  copious,  persuasive  and  full  of  his  subject.  In 
person  he  was  graceful  and  in  manners  agreeable.  His  public 
and  private  life  were  both  without  reproach.  His  devotion  to  his 
state  was  incorruptible."  4  The  Norfolk,  Virginia,  Beacon  said 
of  him,  "There  was  nothing  little  about  him  — he  would  not 
turn  on  his  heel  to  secure  the  highest  political  office  of  the  Fed- 

1  Courier,  Sept.  30, 1839. 

*  News  &  Courier,  Feb.  11,  1900.     Life  of  James  L.  Petigru. 

3  Courier,  Oct.  5,  1839.  *  Ibid.,  Oct.  7,  1839. 


HAYNE'S   DEATH  517 

eral  Government,"  and  of  his  proclamation,  in  response  to  that 
of  Jackson,  it  declared:  "A  more  able  and  eloquent  paper  was 
never  issued  by  any  statesman  of  our  times.  .  .  .  And  in  the 
last  great  cause  to  which  he  devoted  his  talents,  what  tongue  can 
tell  the  value  of  his  services  and  his  name  ?  He  may  be  said  to  have 
fallen  a  martyr  to  the  cause.  .  .  .  The  South  will  mourn  in  his 
death  the  loss  of  one  of  her  most  useful  citizens,  one  of  her  most 
eminent  statesman,  one  of  her  purest  patriots."  1  The  St.  Au- 
gustine News  declared  that  "to  South  Carolina  his  loss  was 
irreparable  and  to  the  nation  a  calamity."  2  B.  F.  Porter  of 
Tuscaloosa,  Alabama,  in  a  most  eloquent  tribute  to  the  dead 
Carolinian,  at  a  public  meeting  of  citizens  at  that  place  to  express 
their  sentiments,  declared,  "He  was  the  Bayard  of  his  age,  and 
lived  without  fear,  as  he  died  without  reproach."  3  But  perhaps 
the  most  fitting  allusion  to  Hayne's  death  was  that  which  was  pro- 
nounced by  the  Honorable  Thomas  Butler  King  of  Georgia,  at  the 
close  of  the  Merchants'  and  Planters'  Convention  at  Macon,  Georgia. 
Senator  King  said :  "I  cannot,  in  justice  to  my  own  feelings  or  to 
this  convention,  withhold  the  expression  of  an  opinion  that  it  is  a 
duty  we  owe  to  ourselves  and  to  our  country  to  pay  a  melancholy 
tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  one  who,  were  he  in  life,  I  am 
sure  would  be  among  us,  imparting  to  our  counsels  the  mature 
wisdom  of  his  unrivalled  intellect  and  the  ardor  of  his  exalted 
patriotism;  but  he  is  gone;  'the  silver  cord  is  broken,'  and  his  purs 
spirit  has  returned  to  God  who  gave  it.  It  is,  I  am  sure,  not  neces< 
sary  for  me  to  say  that  I  allude  to  the  late  General  Robert  Y. 
Hayne,  the  fearless  and  talented  defender  of  Southern  prin- 
ciples and  Southern  rights;  the  untiring  promotor  of  Southern 
interests;  the  unwavering  patriot  and  devoted  friend.  In  all  that 
concerned  our  prosperity,  our  happiness  and  our  liberty,  his  bright 

1  Ibid.t  Oct.  7, 1839.  a  Ibid.,  Oct.  ax,  1839. 

8  Ibid.,  Oct.  25,  1839. 


518  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

genius  and  ardent  patriotism  placed  him  among  the  foremost  of  the 
gallant  leaders  in  our  land.  But,  sir,  he  has  fallen,  and  I  doubt  not, 
as  he  ever  wished  to  fall,  in  the  cause  of  his  country.  Not,  it  is  true, 
on  the  battle-field;  but  in  the  faithful  discharge  of  those  arduous 
civil  duties  which,  while  they  characterize  the  true  patriot,  are 
calculated  to  elevate  his  country  to  the  highest  pitch  of  prosperity 
and  renown."  1  Such  was  the  language  of  those  who  from  time 
to  time  at  various  periods  of  his  life  had  been  thrown  into  contact 
with  Hayne  not  of  the  closest;  yet  one  cannot  fail  to  note  how 
spontaneous  seem  to  be  the  tributes  to  his  lofty  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart.  But  those  closer  to  him  seem  to  have  rated  him  even 
higher,  and  the  preamble  and  resolutions  passed  by  the  Board  of 
Directors  of  the  great  railroad  enterprise,  at  the  head  of  which  he 
had  been  placed,  men  fitly  representative  of  different  parts  of  South 
Carolina,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  indicate 
in  their  expressions  the  profound  impression  he  had  made  upon 
them.  But  before  reciting  them  it  should  be  mentioned  that,  upon 
the  announcement  of  his  death,  at  a  meeting  of  the  City  Council  of 
Charleston,  it  was  decided  to  raise  a  monument  to  him  in  the  city 
square.2  Committees  were  appointed,  and  $100  appropriated 
for  the  best  plan  of  same,  approved  by  the  committees.  Ward 
committees  were  appointed  to  collect  contributions,  and  the  City 
Treasurer  was  ordered  to  receive  deposits  and  keep  a  separate 
account  of  same. 

The  preamble  and  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  Louisville,  Cincinnati  and  Charleston  Railroad  at  Asheville, 
a  week  after  Hayne' s  death,  were  lengthy,  and  highly  eulogistic  of 
his  entire  career ;  but  it  almost  seemed  as  if,  in  the  portion  bearing 

1  Macon  (Ga.)  Messenger,  Nov.  19,  1839. 

2  Courier,  Oct.  3,  1839. 

The  comment  of  the  Richmond  Whig  on  Hayne's  death  was:  "In  his  death 
the  whole  country  has  cause  for  sorrow,  for  every  part  of  it  has  sustained  a  loss. 
He  was  emphatically  a  great  and  good  man."     Quoted  by  Courier,  Oct.  5,  1839. 


HAYNE'S   DEATH  519 

upon  his  connection  with  the  company,  that  they  had  deemed  it 
necessary  to  go  into  detail  for  some  purpose,  and  that  portion  of  the 
paper  should  appear,  as  it  is  the  positive  statement  of  men  connected 
with  him  and  best  able  to  testify  to  his  work.  The  preamble  re- 
cites: "When  the  plans  to  unite  the  Southern  Atlantic  Seaboard 
with  the  far  West  by  an  extended  line  of  Railroad  first  attracted 
general  attention  in  South  Carolina,  he  took  the  lead  in  promoting 
it,  and  by  his  high  authority  and  enlarged  views  and  powerful  elo- 
quence contributed  much  to  secure  to  it  the  support  of  the  people 
of  that  State.  At  Knoxville,  in  1836,  at  the  most  numerous  con- 
vention it  is  believed  ever  held  in  the  South,  he  was,  by  the  unani- 
mous voice  of  all  the  States  there  represented,  called  to  preside  over 
its  deliberations,  and  he  performed  the  duties  of  the  office  in  a 
manner  to  command  universal  approbation  and  respect.  When 
public  opinion  had  determined  to  carry  the  plan  into  execution,  he 
assisted  largely  in  devising  and  obtaining  the  charters  under  which 
it  was  proposed  to  be  effected  and  under  which  we  are  now  acting. 
And  when  the  charter  was  obtained  from  the  four  States  through 
whose  territories  it  is  intended  the  road  shall  pass,  the  stockholders, 
with  perhaps  unexampled  unanimity,  without  one  dissenting  voice 
called  on  him  to  conduct  the  undertaking.  Without  undervaluing 
the  abilities  of  any  other  of  the  stockholders,  it  is  firmly  believed 
that  no  other  individual  was  so  well  qualified  for  the  situation. 
A  life  of  the  highest  public  service,  firm,  consistent  and  liberal, 
without  fear  and  without  reproach,  had  won  for  him  not  only  the 
entire  confidence  of  his  native  State  but  of  the  Nation.  His  name 
had  crossed  the  Atlantic.  He  had  a  European  reputation.  His 
standing  gave  character  to  our  enterprise.  It  was  a  bond,  a 
guarantee,  not  only  to  the  practicability  of  our  undertaking,  but 
that  it  would  be  completed  and  raised,  and  sustained  our  credit 
both  at  home  and  abroad.  He  gave  himself  faithfully  to  the  office. 
He  devoted  to  it  all  the  energies  of  his  mind.    He  conducted  its 


520  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

affairs  with  the  soundest  discretion  and  the  greatest  ability  amid 
difficulties  and  obstacles  and  discouragements  of  no  ordinary 
magnitude,  almost  necessarily  attendant  in  a  country  like  ours  on 
every  great  work.  He  held  the  unvaried  tenor  of  his  way  and  never 
faltered.  He  was  equal  to  every  emergency,  and  was  in  truth  the 
life  and  soul  of  the  company.  In  the  Legislature  of  his  own 
State,  his  well-deserved  influence,  his  comprehensive  and  convincing 
reasoning,  his  manly  and  persuasive  eloquence  and  the  thorough  de- 
pendence of  every  hearer  on  his  inflexible  integrity  and  stainless 
honor  carried  us  triumphantly  through  the  most  threatening  trials. 
The  same  high  qualities  won  from  Tennessee  a  generous  pledge  of 
hearty  cooperation,  and  in  North  Carolina  and  Kentucky  were  uni- 
versally admired,  respected  and  trusted.  »  .  .  He  shrunk  from 
no  responsibility.  No  opposition,  no  perverseness  in  others  ever 
exhausted  his  patience  or  delayed  him  in  the  performance  of  a  duty. 
His  judgment  was  active,  discriminating  and  accurate.  His  direc- 
tions were  always  clear  and  precise.  He  had  accumulated  a  fund 
of  information  on  the  subject  of  railroads  and  all  their  incidents, 
and  was  daily  adding  to  it.  His  reports  and  addresses  to  the 
stockholders,  and  his  expositions  from  time  to  time  to  the  Board 
display  the  utmost  industry,  much  knowledge,  the  soundest  views 
and  the  greatest  candor.  He  conceals  no  difficulties,  he  slurs 
over  no  embarrassments,  he  encourages  no  unfounded  hopes,  he 
presents  everything  fully  and  fairly  without  exaggeration  or  extenua- 
tion as  it  appears  to  his  comprehensive  mind.  To  him  the  stock- 
holders and  their  Board  and  the  whole  community  mainly  looked 
to  consummate  the  work  in  which  he  was  engaged  and,  had  he  been 
spared,  if  it  be  in  the  power  of  man,  as  we  trust  it  is,  he  would  have 
accomplished  it.  He  has  fallen  at  his  post,  in  the  faithful  discharge 
of  his  duty,  in  the  midst  of  his  youth  and  strength,  crowned  with 
honor,  universally  lamented,  leaving  to  his  country  a  name  that  will 
adorn  her  annals.  ..."     The  resolutions  which  followed  declared 


HAYNE'S   DEATH  521 

that  the  death  of  Hayne  was  the  "greatest  calamity  which  could 
have  happened  to  the  company."  !  Having  considered  these  ex- 
pressions of  opinion  concerning  the  dead  statesman,  we  are  in  a 
position  to  analyze  the  emotions,  so  far  as  they  found  expression  in 
the  words  of  his  great  leader,  of  whom  Benton  tells  us  he  was,  in  the 
great  debate  with  Webster,  "the  sword  and  shield";  to  whom  he 
had  practically  surrendered  his  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate, 
in  order  to  carry  through  nullification,  in  the  most  exposed  and 
dangerous  position  which  a  follower  of  Calhoun  could  occupy. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  Calhoun,  in  the  previous  year,  in  at- 
tempting to  justify  his  withdrawal,  had  reiterated  Hayne' s  ex- 
pressed sentiments  with  the  declaration,  "You  cannot  possibly  feel 
more  pain  in  differing  from  me  than  I  do  in  differing  from  you," 
and,  although  in  response  to  Hayne' s  appeal  for  support,  in  addition 
to  his  arguments,  on  the  ground  of  their  past  close  personal  and 
political  relations,  he  had  simply  stated  that  he  could  not  "see 
in  any  of  the  considerations  "  which  his  correspondent  suggested 
"reasons  to  change,"  he  had  assured  the  latter  that,  in  spite  of  his 
withdrawal,  "should  the  work  go  on,  I  shall  wish  both  you  and  it 
great  success."  This  cordial  expression  of  good-will,  it  is  true, 
had  not  prevented  Calhoun,  within  twenty-four  hours  of  its  dec- 
laration, from  characterizing  the  work,  to  one  interested  in  a 
rival  enterprise,  as  "a  mad  project,"  to  oppose  which,  "the  in- 
fatuation in  favor  of,"  was  "yet  too  strong";  but  to  encourage 
him  in  the  belief  that  it  was  "daily  giving  way"  and  "in  a  year 
the  move  that  you  desire  may  be  made  with  advantage  " ;  but  in 
spite  of  the  guerilla  warfare  waged  against  it,  the  work  had  gone 
on,  and  at  the  conclusion  of  the  year  a  determined  assault  upon  the 
enterprise  had  been  made  by  as  capable  men  as  could  be  found  to 
lead  it;  this  assault,  however,  had  not  succeeded  in  completely 
overthrowing  it,  and  the   main  battle   had   still  to  be  waged  at 

1  Courier,  Oct.  24,  1839. 


522  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

Columbia,  on  December  4.  Yet,  we  may  say  that  nothing  short  of 
a  resurrection  could  save  the  company;  for,  in  the  words  of  the 
Board  of  Direction,  "  the  life  and  soul  of  the  enterprise  lay  dead 
at  Asheville."  What  were  Calhoun's  comments  on  the  death  of 
this  man,  so  closely  allied  with  him  for  ten  years  in  Washington, 
and  who  had  surpassed  all  who  had  ever  come  in  contact  with  the 
great  Carolinian,  in  devoted  service  ?  Here  is  his  letter,  on  hearing 
the  news,  written  to  his  most  intimate  correspondent,  the  man  to 
whom,  of  all  men,  he  most  opened  his  heart,  and  with  whom  he  was 
on  such  terms  of  intimacy  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  appeal  to, 
to  help  him  influence  his  (Calhoun's)  wife,  that  correspondent's 
sister.  The  letter  is  addressed  to  James  Edward  Calhoun,  from 
Carters,  near  Fort  Hill,  October  5, 1839.  "  My  dear  Sir :  The  death 
of  Genl.  Hayne  and  Col.  Blanding  are  really  surprising  events,  under 
the  circumstances  under  which  they  occurred,  and  are  destined  to  ef- 
fect a  great  change  in  the  system  with  which  they  were  so  closely 
identified.  I  agree  with  you  that  our  course,  and  mine  in  particular, 
should  be  cautious  and  mute.  My  impression  is  decidedly  that 
the  stockholders  ought  to  place  Col.  Gadsden  at  the  head  of  their 
affairs,  which  I  understand  are  in  a  deplorable  condition.  I  infer 
that  the  road  cannot  reach  even  Columbia  without  the  aid  of  the 
State  to  the  amount  of  nearly  a  million.  The  true  policy  of  the 
Company,  it  seems  to  me,  at  this  juncture,  is  to  stop  all  operations 
forthwith  beyond  Columbia  and  to  reduce  their  operations  even  to 
that  point,  for  the  present,  to  the  smallest  scale.  If  this  should 
be  done,  and  I  think  necessity  must  enforce  it,  it  seems  to  me  clear 
that,  for  the  present  at  least,  the  two  presidencies,  that  of  the  bank 
and  road,  ought  to  be  united  in  the  same  individual.  I  feel  con- 
fident a  man  of  business  such  as  Col.  Gadsden  could  easily  perform 
both,  and  that  their  union  would  not  only  be  a  great  saving,  but 
would,  in  the  deranged  state  of  the  affairs  of  the  company,  be  the 
most  effectual  step  to  restore  order  and  give  a  new  energy  to  its 


HAYNE'S   DEATH 


523 


action.  He  unites  the  requisite  qualities  for  each,  and  is  the  only 
individual  that  I  know  that  does.  The  election  to  fill  Blanding's 
place  will,  I  suppose,  first  come  on ;  it  would  be  best  to  say  nothing 
about  that  of  Hayne's  till  after  that  is  over.  When  that  comes 
on,  which  I  suppose  will  not  be  till  the  convention  meets  at  Colum- 
bia, there  will  not,  I  think,  be  any  difficulty  to  elect  him  to  fill  it. 
The  main  point  is  to  get  a  full  proxy  from  Abbeville  and  Edgefield 
to  be  placed  in  safe  hands.  The  latter  should  be  carefully  guarded, 
and  you  can  do  much  to  effect  both.  No  one  could  represent  the 
interests  of  the  two  Districts  better  than  yourself.  The  only  objec- 
tion I  see  is  your  near  connection  with  myself,  but  I  do  now  know 
that  it  ought  to  have  much  weight.  Now  is  the  time  to  put  the 
affairs  of  the  company  right.  .  .  ." 1 

The  first  impression  produced  by  the  perusal  of  this  letter  is  the 
utter  lack  of  feeling.  This  may  not  have  been  unnatural,  as  far 
as  it  related  to  Blanding;  but  the  contrast  between  it  and  the 
phrases  in  which  Calhoun  denied  his  help  to  that  man  who  had  so 
loyally  supported  him  for  ten  long  years,  "I  shall  ever  remember 
the  important  scenes  in  which  we  have  acted  together,  with  pleas- 
ure, and  the  important  service  which  you  have  rendered  the  State 
and  the  Union,"  is  striking.  But  yet  still  more  unpleasant  is  the 
recognition  of  the  wisdom  of  the  advice  that,  while  comparative 
strangers  were  sounding  the  praises  of  the  dead  Carolinian,  it  was 
best  that  he,  who  had  received  from  Hayne  the  greatest  service, 
should  "be  cautious  and  mute."  But  what  can  be  said  in  explana- 
tion of  the  expressed  advocacy  of  Gadsden  for  the  presidency  of 
both  bank  and  road,  when  we  recollect  that  not  a  year  had  elapsed 
since  Calhoun  had  written  Hayne,  in  defence  of  his  withdrawal 
from  the  enterprise,  "  one  of  my  objections  to  the  route  was  that 
it  could  not  sustain  itself  by  its  own  advantages,  without  the  arti- 
ficial aid  of  the   bank,  to  which  I  was  opposed,  among   other 

^'Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  pp.  431-432. 


524  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

grounds,  because  the  union  of  the  two  powers  in  the  same  company, 
that  over  the  currency  and  intercourse  of  the  country,  would  be 
dangerous  to  our  free  institutions,  in  which  pray  I  may  be  de- 
ceived." 

Ought  these  facts  to  be  ignored  ?  Have  they  not  some  bearing 
on  the  question  regarding  the  course  of  these  two  influential  men 
in  relation  to  this  matter  so  closely  concerning  the  welfare  of  the 
State  and  the  reputation  of  the  two  themselves  ?  Suppose  one  has 
risen  to  a  monumental  height  and  the  fame  of  the  other  has 
been  obscured  by  a  belief  that  the  scheme  which  the  greater  figure 
had  opposed  so  relentlessly  was  visionary,  is  that  any  reason  for 
suppressing  the  truth  ?  Calhoun  admits,  in  his  reply  to  Hayne,  that 
the  argument  of  the  latter  concerning  the  route  of  the  French 
Broad  being  the  only  one  which  could  command  a  majority  of  the 
Legislature  in  favor  of  the  railroad  bank  charter,  is  a  strong  con- 
sideration; but  declares  that  one  of  his  reasons  for  opposing  the 
route  was  that  the  union  of  the  two  powers  in  the  same  company, 
"currency  and  intercourse,"  would  be  " dangerous  to  our  free  in- 
stitutions," which  fear  seems  to  have  so  possessed  the  stockholders 
of  the  bank  that  they  not  only  voted  down  the  report  of  the 
committee  uniting  the  two  offices  in  Hayne,  but  kept  him  even  off 
the  management  of  the  bank  as  a  director,  while  other  directors  of 
the  road  went  on;  but  immediately  upon  Hayne's  death,  Calhoun 
presses  for  that  very  union  which  he  had  declared  he  believed 
"dangerous  to  our  free  institutions."  Do  we  not  recognize  in  this 
that  the  real  difficulty  was  that  Calhoun  could  never  follow  and 
must  always  lead,  and  that  which  was  advocated  by  another  was 
dangerous,  while,  when  advocated  by  himself,  perfectly  legitimate  ? 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  SHORT-LIVED  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  ORIGINAL  SCHEME  OF  THE 
ROAD.  CLINGMAN'S  POWERFUL  SPEECH  IN  VINDICATION  OF 
HAYNE  AND  BLANDING.  ONE  YEAR  MORE  BEFORE  THE  COL- 
LAPSE.     THE    PROJECT    CRITICALLY    CONSIDERED 

Calhoun's  belief  that  there  would  not  be  any  difficulty  in 
electing  Colonel  Gadsden  to  Hayne's  place  at  the  adjourned  meet- 
ing of  the  company,  which  was  to  be  held  at  Columbia,  was  a 
reasonable  belief.  Who  was  there  to  oppose  him  ?  The  fight  had 
been  close  with  Hayne  alive.  With  Hayne  dead,  who  was  strong 
enough  to  champion  the  crippled  road  that  South  Carolina's 
greatest  son  opposed  so  relentlessly?  Were  not  the  finances  de- 
ranged? Had  not  Memminger's  report  so  shown,  despite  his 
cautions  as  to  mistakes  ?  And  had  not  Memminger  himself  been, 
next  to  Hayne,  the  strongest  advocate,  formerly,  of  the  great  route, 
and  in  the  mind  of  some,  but  little  behind  Hayne  in  closeness  of 
reasoning  power  and  convincing  argument?  Was  he  not  now 
against  it?  Had  not  the  Mercury  abandoned  it?  Was  not  the 
belief  almost  universal  that,  with  Hayne's  death,  the  life  and  soul  of 
the  original  conception  was  dead  ?  Was  not  the  fact  that  Kentucky 
had  never  responded  to  but  one  instalment  of  less  than  $i  1,000,  and 
North  Carolina,  while  responding  to  the  three,  shrinking  in  her 
third  and  last  more  than  50  per  cent,  which  made  her  total  but 
little  over  $13,000,  sufficient  to  indicate  the  uselessness  of  the  im- 
mense effort  which  would  be  necessary  to  carry  the  road  to  the 
North  Carolina  line?     It  looked  so.     But  there  was  still  some 

525 


526  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

fight  in  the  board.  The  chief  engineer  presented  a  statement 
to  the  effect  that  the  road  could  be  carried  from  Branchville  to  the 
North  Carolina  line  with  an  expenditure  of  $3,950,000,  or  possibly 
only  $3,180,000,  of  which  $1,022,533  had  already  been  incurred, 
and  must  be  thrown  away  if  the  work  was  not  pushed.1  He  showed 
the  absurdity  of  comparing  the  expense  of  constructing  an  em- 
bankment such  as  the  company  had  laid  down,  of  25  feet,  with  the 
old  one  of  only  13  feet  width.  He  pointed  out  that  the  surveys, 
about  which  so  much  had  been  said,  had  covered  some  2000  miles, 
and  he  estimated  that,  if  pushed,  the  work  could  be  completed  by 
1846.  In  addition,  the  effect  of  the  expensive  repairs  which  Hayne 
had  put  upon  the  Hamburg  Road,  not  apparent  in  September,  were 
very  much  in  evidence  three  months  later.  For  the  month  of 
November  the  receipts  of  the  road  leaped  up  50  per  cent,  and  the 
amount  of  cotton  brought  down  was  doubled.  The  supporters  of 
the  original  plan  took  heart  again,  and  again  the  battle  was  joined. 
The  party  which  had  been  formerly  described  as  "predetermined 
not  to  suffer  the  road  to  be  carried  beyond  Columbia"  had  ap- 
parently centred  upon  Colonel  Gadsden  as  their  choice  for  the 
presidency.  They  had  the  quiet  support  of  him  who  bestrid  the 
State  like  a  colossus,  and  from  Pickens,  Abbeville  and  Edgefield 
they  drew  many  followers.  C.  G.  Memminger,  rising  into  that 
well-deserved  fame  which  made  him,  in  two  decades,  the  leading 
citizen  in  the  State,  was  their  chief  spokesman.  Many  of  the 
Charleston  stockholders  were,  however,  with  the  mass  of  the  stock- 
holders of  the  rest  of  the  State,  behind  Vardry  McBee  of  Green- 
ville, and  for  them,  apparently,  the  chief  spokesman  was  ex- 
Congressman  Elmore.  Mr.  Memminger,  for  some  reason,  followed 
Webster's  course  in  the  great  debate  on  the  public  lands  and,  passing 
over  Elmore,  fell  upon  Clingman  of  North  Carolina.  No  doubt 
Mr.  Memminger's  speech  fully  sustained  his  ascending  reputation, 

1  Courier,  Oct.  25,  1839. 


THE   SHORT-LIVED   RESURRECTION  527 

but  the  copy  does  not  appear.  The  speech,  however,  which  he 
drew  from  Clingman  in  reply,  could  not  escape  notice,  and  would 
have  done  its  deliverer  no  discredit  by  comparison  with  the  utter- 
ances of  any  deliberative  assembly  in  the  world,  where  English  was 
spoken.  It  appears  in  full  in  the  Courier  of  December  18,  and  it 
probably  had  more  than  a  little  to  do  with  the  elevation  of  McBee 
to  the  presidency  in  place  of  Gadsden,  at  that  meeting.  Some 
short  extracts  from  it  which  hardly  give  the  reader  a  clear  idea  of  its 
force  and  power,  but  some  conception  of  the  tremendous  odds 
with  which  Hayne  had  struggled,  are  here  exhibited.  Incidentally, 
the  speaker  defended  Hayne  and  Blanding  from  the  supposed 
charge  of  having  " humbugged"  the  stockholders  as  to  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  French  Broad  route,  or  that  they  had  ever  claimed 
that  the  road  could  be  built  without  payment  of  the  stock  subscribed 
for  that  purpose.  He  claimed,  as  he  certainly  had  some  ground  to, 
that,  irrespective  of  what  other  States  did  or  might  do,  South 
Carolina  had  undertaken  the  work.  Touching  on  the  small  sub- 
scriptions of  North  Carolina,  he  made  this  point:  "Without  as- 
suming to  say  what  North  Carolina  will  do  or  what  she  would 
have  done,  in  any  event,  I  take  the  responsibility  of  declaring  that 
she  has  never  yet  said  that  she  would  not  contribute  money,  if  nec- 
essary to  the  work.  The  stock  subscribed  in  that  State  is  no  fair 
index  even  of  the  feelings  of  her  citizens  towards  the  enterprise. 
Just  before  the  books  of  subscription  were  opened,  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Calhoun  was  published,  recommending  the  route  through  Georgia. 
As  his  influence  was  supposed  to  be  predominant  in  South  Caro- 
lina it  dampened  the  ardor  of  our  citizens,  and  it  is  believed  that  the 
subscription  was  thereby  rendered  much  less  than  it  would  other- 
wise have  been.  .  .  .  From  the  indications  this  morning  it  seems 
that  a  majority  of  the  stockholders  here  are  in  favor  of  electing 
to  the  office  of  president  of  the  road  a  gentleman  who  has 
long  favored  the  route  through  Georgia.     Conceding  to  Colonel 


528  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

Gadsden  all  the  ability  his  friends  claim  for  him  (a  point  which 
my  limited  personal  acquaintance  with  him  does  not  enable  me  to 
express  an  opinion  of) ,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  his  eleva- 
tion to  the  office  will  kill  your  road  dead.  It  is  singular  that  it 
should  be  supported  by  those  persons  who  are  unwilling  to  pass  any 
resolution  announcing  your  determination  to  stop  here.  His  elec- 
tion will  satisfy  the  community  as  fully  on  that  point  as  the  most 
solemn  declaration  you  could  make.  It  is  well  known  that  he  has 
staked  his  reputation  on  the  failure  of  this  road.  For  two  years  he 
has  on  all  occasions  spoken  and  written  against  it.  He  has  not  only 
pronounced  the  route  inferior  to  the  other,  but  entirely  impracti- 
cable. I  concur,  therefore,  with  the  gentleman  who  declares  the  act 
is  suicidal.  I  go  further  —  it  is  suicide  under  the  most  humiliating 
circumstances.  If  it  is  to  be  so,  let  us  kill  the  enterprise  ourselves 
and  not  gratify  an  enemy  so  far  as  to  appoint  him  an  executioner. 
He  has  for  years  made  war  upon  the  company,  but  for  me,  I  have  not 
been  so  far  converted  by  his  blows  as  to  choose  him  to  preside  over 
us."  x 

The  above  gives  but  a  faint  idea  of  this  powerful  speech,  which  a 
South  Carolinian  must  read  with  mingled  feelings  of  pride  and 
pain.  While  there  is  a  deliberation  and  a  heavy  sternness  in  it, 
making  its  style  quite  different  from  that  of  Hayne,  while  there  is 
an  absence  of  that  delicacy  of  satire  which  Hayne  used  with  such 
effect  when  roused,  yet  there  is  much  in  it  to  recall  Hayne's  great 
reply  to  Webster.  The  panegyric  on  past  greatness,  offered  in 
contrast  to  portending  action,  is  superbly  developed.  The  utter 
fearlessness  with  which  the  counter  attack  is  relentlessly  pressed 
home,  blow  on  blow,  and  yet  ever  with  perfect  propriety,  stirs  the 
blood  of  the  reader  even  at  this  day ;  while  the  lofty  English  fair- 
ness that  pervades  it  makes  this  North  Carolinian's  speech  the 
very  echo  of  Hayne's  declaration  in  the  early  part  of  1838:   "The 

1  Courier,  Dec.  18,  1839. 


THE    SHORT-LIVED   RESURRECTION  529 

fate  of  the  road  is  in  your  hands,  and  it  will  be  for  you  to  determine 
whether  the  roll  on  which  is  inscribed  the  names  of  the  original 
inscribers  to  the  Louisville,  Cincinnati  and  Charleston  Railroad 
shall  remain  a  proud  memorial  of  their  wisdom  and  patriotism,  or 
a  miserable  record  of  fluctuating  feelings  and  changeful  purpose,  — 
a  monument  of  our  glory  or  our  shame." 

The  result  of  Clingman's  speech  was  to  completely  disprove 
Calhoun's  opinion  that  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  electing 
Gadsden ;  for  Vardry  McBee  was  chosen  president,  and  approved 
the  memorial  prepared  by  Mitchell  King,  to  be  submitted  to  the 
Legislature,  wherein  it  was  claimed  that,  with  what  might  be 
reasonably  expected  as  collectible  from  the  assets  of  the  road  and 
an  advancement  of  eight  instalments  on  the  State's  subscription, 
which  would  amount  to  $400,000,  something  like  $1,920,000  could 
be  raised,  more  than  sufficient  to  pay  off  the  entire  indebtedness  to 
the  Hamburg  Road,  leaving  that  property  free  of  all  obligations, 
clearing  off  all  dues  to  banks  and  requisitions  for  work  under  con- 
tract for  the  superstructure  as  far  as  Orangeburg  on  the  Columbia 
branch,  with  all  interest  met,  and  balance  of  $82,ooo.1  On  the 
twenty-first  day  of  December,  1839,  the  prayer  of  the  memorial  was 
granted,  and  an  act  passed  affording  the  relief  sought ; 2  and  for  a 
year  or  thereabout  the  struggle  continued.  But  no  South  Carolina 
enterprise  could  withstand  the  relentless  internal  warfare  directed 
by  the  greatest  public  figure  in  the  South  and  the  almost  abso- 
lute ruler  of  South  Carolina's  politics;  and  by  September  25,  1840, 
Calhoun  announces,  on  the  authority  of  Colonel  Gadsden :  "  Ten- 
nessee has  withdrawn  by  mutual  consent  from  those  concerned, 
and  all  idea  of  going  beyond  Columbia  openly  abandoned.  Thus 
ends  the  humbug.  ...  If  I  could  triumph  when  state  and 
friends  have  suffered,  what  a  triumph  I  would  have."  8 

1  Ibid.,  Dec.  16,  1839.  3  Statutes  of  So.  Ca.,  Vol.  11,  p.  86. 

3  "Calhoun's  Correspondence,"  p.  464. 

2M 


530  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

It  is  useless  to  pursue  any  farther  inquiries  as  to  the  fortunes 
of  this  road,  so  intimately  connected  with  the  last  years  of  Hayne's 
life.  On  the  practicability  or  impracticability  of  the  French  Broad 
route,  the  judgment  of  two  great  men  was  staked,  and  the  apparent 
vindication  of  Calhoun,  in  1840,  raised  his  fame  and  exalted  his 
influence  in  South  Carolina  to  an  even  loftier  height ;  while  over 
Hayne's  reputation  the  dissolution  of  the  great  project,  against 
which  Calhoun  had  so  exerted  his  power  of  obstruction,  undoubt- 
edly cast  a  cloud  which  has  remained  to  the  present  time.  How- 
ever pure  and  high  a  man  may  have  been  in  his  public  and  private 
life,  to  have  been  at  the  close  of  his  life  the  director,  guide  and 
chief  sustaining  power  of  a  work  which  failed  after  his  death, 
and,  in  addition,  was  designated  by  the  greatest  statesman  of  his 
section  as  "a  humbug,"  must  injure  him  in  the  estimation  of  his 
fellows  as  well  as  posterity,  and  this  is  one  of  the  explanations 
why  so  little  is  known  of  Hayne,  so  little  mention  made  of  him, 
so  slight  an  appreciation  of  him.  While  Hayne's  merits  were 
extolled  by  McDuffie  in. the  eulogy  delivered  in  commemoration 
of  him,  some  months  after  his  death,  no  allusion  is  made  to  the 
railroad  work.  The  plan  to  erect  a  monument  to  him  seems  to 
have  been  struck  with  atrophy  in  spite  of  the  elaborate  prepara- 
tions. His  papers,  carefully  preserved  for  twenty  years  or  more 
after  his  death,  seem  to  have  met  the  fate  which  overtook  those 
of  his  great  predecessors,  Charles  Pinckney  and  William  Lowndes. 
Lost  or  destroyed,  the  veriest  fragments  remain. 

The  steady  movement  on  to  secession,  the  great  blazing  war, 
that  grand,  imposing  epic,  the  Iliad  of  the  old  South,  from  out  of 
which  arises  the  stately  figure  of  the  peerless  Virginian,  Robert  E. 
Lee,  and  through  which  flashes  the  meteor-like  career  of  Stonewall 
Jackson,  dwarf  the  proportions  of  even  great  figures  of  an  earlier 
period.  But  above  all,  the  tragic  grandeur  of  that  lonely  figure, 
so  firmly  convinced  of  the  justice  of  his  cause,  so  absolutely  identi- 


THE   SHORT-LIVED   RESURRECTION  531 

fied  with  every  aspiration  of  his  section  and  of  the  old  order  which 
was  to  pass  away,  leading  the  South  down  to  the  valley  of  the 
shadow,  as  she  swung  into  inevitable  concussion  with  the  opinions 
of  the  civilized  world,  blots  out  the  recollection  of  apparently 
smaller  matters.  Yet  had  Hayne  been  able  to  push  through  his 
great  railroad  scheme,  it  may  be  fairly  questioned  whether  there 
would  have  been  any  war.  It  was  his  belief  that  with  that  road 
linking  the  South  and  West,  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  was  es- 
tablished. Was  the  route  he  supported  impracticable,  and  was 
"the  great  route"  which  Calhoun  advocated,  the  better?  What 
if  time  has  shown  that  Hayne' s  judgment  was  right  and  Calhoun's 
wrong?  Shall  he  who  gave  up  his  life  in  the  effort  to  serve  his 
State  and  country  be  left  under  the  obloquy  which  must  involve 
the  projector  of  a  "  humbug,"  because  the  intentions  of  the  great 
man  who  so  designated  it  were  good,  if  his  judgment  was  faulty  ? 
Not  while  the  love  of  justice  appeals  to  men.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered that  Calhoun  survived  Hayne  eleven  years,  and  that  in  the 
quarter  of  a  century  which  elapsed  between  the  first  movement 
for  railroad  connection  between  the  South  and  West  and  its  es- 
tablishment, it  took  him  five  years  to  scotch  the  French  Broad 
route,  while  very  nearly  eight  more  were  needed  to  launch  that 
which  he  favored,  and  its  course  also  was  arrested  before  it  could 
begin  the  penetration  of  the  mountains.  As  the  crippling  effects 
of  the  great  war  and  the  still  more  disastrous  effects  of  recon-. 
struction  gave  way  to  renewed  industrial  progress  in  South  Caro- 
lina, it  was  to  Hayne's  route,  the  French  Broad  route,  that  men's 
minds  turned,  as  the  natural  route,  and  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
century  over  it  has  rolled  a  freight  so  heavy  as  to  continually  dis- 
organize its  passenger  traffic.  Meanwhile,  as  late  as  1903,  to  the 
writer's  own  knowledge,  "the  great  route"  of  Calhoun  still  leads 
but  to  "the  forest  primeval." 

There  the  shy  trout  that  shuns  the  haunts  of  men  darts  through 


532  ROBERT   Y.   HAYNE 

the  limpid  stream ;  the  wild  turkey  and  the  ruffed  grouse  rise  from 
the  underbrush  in  their  strong  and  noisy  flight,  and  the  solitary 
resident  occasionally  met  with  informs  the  traveller  that  he  is 
"in  the  home  of  the  rattler."  It  is  therefore  legitimate  to  inquire 
what  might  have  been  the  result  had  Calhoun  seconded  Hayne's 
efforts  instead  of  exerting  his  great  powers  to  thwart  them.  Un- 
questionably the  result  would  have  been,  if  successful,  to  have 
elevated  Hayne  to  a  position  in  the  South  very  possibly  in  advance 
of  his  own.  The  road  pushed  through  would  have  very  probably 
made  an  end  of  abolition  agitation;  for  either  free  labor  would 
have  destroyed  slave  labor,  or  slavery  would  have  peacefully 
spread.  The  probable  result  would  have  been  the  spread  of 
slavery  for  a  while  towards  the  southwest;  while  the  residents  of 
the  section  through  which  the  road  passed,  as  well  as  all  that  to 
the  northeast,  would  have  gradually  parted  with  their  slaves  and 
turned  to  free  labor.  But  with  the  commercial  success  of  the  enter- 
prise, the  head  would  have  loomed  out  greatest,  no  matter  how  ably 
he  might  have  been  seconded;  just  as  in  nullification  upon  Cal- 
houn's brow  was  placed  the  crown  of  success,  although  it  may  well 
be  doubted  whether  that  might  not  have  ended  in  disaster,  had 
it  not  been  for  the  particular  ability  with  which  Hayne  handled 
the  helm,  and  the  very  peculiar  relations  between  him  and  Jackson, 
moving  the  latter  to  a  degree  of  patience  he  never  exhibited  at  any 
other  period  of  his  life,  before  or  after. 

That  the  panic  of  1837  did  cripple  the  road  is  not  to  be  ques- 
tioned; but  even  so,  the  road  might  have  been  pushed  through 
with  time  and  patience,  had  it  been  spared  the  war  waged  upon 
it,  with  regard  to  which  the  purchase  of  the  Hamburg  Road  was 
in  part  made  to  stop  and  to  unite  all  factions,  although  there  were 
also  other  reasons  for  the  move.  Possibly  it  might  have  been 
wiser  to  have  disregarded  the  clamor  and  proceeded  with  the 
construction  of  the  road  from  Columbia,  under  the  contract  offered 


THE   SHORT-LIVED   RESURRECTION  533 

by  the  Hamburg  Road  to  build  a  road  of  equal  mileage  to  that 
place  as  the  company's  road  advanced  beyond.  It  would  have 
made  the  building  more  expensive,  and  the  Hamburg  Road  might 
have  broken  down  in  the  effort;  while  to  have  taken  advantage 
of  the  necessities  of  that  road  in  such  case  might  have  aroused 
a  hostile  sentiment,  which  might  have  been  as  injurious  as  that 
herein  portrayed.  In  fact,  these  considerations  bring  up  so  many 
unknown  and  unknowable  quantities  as  to  leave  the  matter  very 
obscure.  Certain  it  was,  however,  that  the  price  paid  for  a  road 
needing  the  repair  which  the  Hamburg  Road  did  need  was  most 
liberal,  and  seems  to  have  amounted  in  the  end  to  about  $650,000 
in  excess  of  the  estimated  cost  of  the  road  from  Columbia  to  the 
North  Carolina  line.  But  what  seems  most  difficult  to  under- 
stand is  why,  with  a  subscription  in  South  Carolina  of  $6,000,000 
and  a  loan  of  $2,000,000,  even  with  an  expenditure  of  $3,000,000 
for  a  road  of  136  miles  of  railway  in  running  order,  the  con- 
struction of  the  road  to  the  North  Carolina  line  should  have  been 
abandoned.  It  is  quite  true  that  the  action  of  Kentucky  through- 
out was  unworthy  of  that  great  State;  that  it  had  chilled  the 
enterprise  and  to  some  extent  cut  off  Ohio;  but  Tennessee  had 
responded  in  no  slight  manner,  and  if  it  was  desired  to  interest 
North  Carolina  more  deeply,  pecuniarily,  no  argument  could  have 
equalled  that  of  a  road  approaching  her  borders. 

The  enterprise  fell,  then,  not  because  it  was  utterly  unreasonable, 
but  because,  as  the  Mercury  had  declared,  just  prior  to  the  death  of 
Hayne,  "there  was  a  party  predetermined  not  to  suffer  the  road  to 
be  carried  beyond  Columbia."  That  the  Mercury  subsequently 
abandoned  the  French  Broad  route,  simply  indicates  the  increased 
potency  of  Calhoun  after  the  death  of  Hayne. 

Mention  of  but  one  more  production  of  Hayne  will  be  made, 
as  it  is  illustrative  of  the  views  of  slave  holding  at  its  best,  in 
this  the  year  of  his  death.     About  two  months  previous  to  his  own 


534  ROBERT  Y.   HAYNE 

death,  he  wrote  the  obituary  of  his  wife's  father.  After  alluding 
to  his  service  under  Marion  and  personal  intimacy  with  Jefferson, 
he  touches  on  the  private  life  of  Colonel  Alston:  "Whether  we 
estimate  his  claims  to  public  consideration  by  his  extraordinary 
success,  the  admirable  treatment  of  his  slaves  or  the  progressive 
improvement  of  his  estate  (the  result  of  a  wise  practical  system 
of  economy  and  good  management),  Colonel  Alston  stood  at  the 
head  of  the  class  to  which  he  belonged.  It  was  believed,  at 
the  time  of  his  death,  he  was,  with  perhaps  a  single  exception, 
the  largest  slave-holder  in  South  Carolina.  ...  It  was  the 
opinion  of  Colonel  Alston  that  in  the  management  of  slaves  the 
true  interests  of  the  planter  were  in  exact  accordance  with  the 
dictates  of  an  enlightened  humanity.  .  .  .  The  consequence 
was  that  his  numerous  plantations  were  models  of  neatness  and 
order  and  his  slaves  always  exhibited  an  appearance  of  health 
and  comfort,  which  spoke  well  for  their  treatment.  They  were 
devotedly  attached  to  their  master  .  .  .  etc."  On  the  copy  of  the 
Mercury  in  which  this  appears  in  faded  letters  is  written:  "From 
R.  B.  H.  Written  by  my  husband.  Alas  !  Alas  !  What  has  befal- 
len me.  You  can  well  imagine.  Too  sick  to  add  more."  This 
brief  comment  of  the  widow  indicates  more  than  longer  protesta- 
tions. She  knew  him  best  of  all  and,  cherishing  his  memory  with 
wifely  devotion,  pathetically  preserved  his  public  utterances,  but 
only  up  to  1834,  gathering  them  together  in  1842,  when  public 
opinion  was  too  strong  to  permit  her  to  believe  that  his  work  for 
the  road  was  other  than  unfortunate.  Time  has,  however,  called 
that  opinion  to  book,  and  the  record  is  here  fearlessly  exposed  of 
the  whole  career  of  the  man.  Eloquent  he  was;  but  it  is  no  dis- 
paragement of  him  to  say  that,  in  the  opinion  of  competent  judges, 
there  were  some  of  his  day  considered  more  so.  Dauntless  he 
was,  but  so  were  many  others.  In  purity  of  private  and  public 
life  he  stood  at  the  very  top  of  his  time,  and  that  a  time  when 


THE   SHORT-LIVED  RESURRECTION  535 

public  men  were  very  pure.  In  that  practical  wisdom  which 
makes  use  of  every  opportunity,  in  that  unwearied  industry 
which  seeks  to  utilize  every  force  for  good,  he  had  few  equals  and 
no  superiors.  In  breadth  of  thought  and  power  of  comprehension, 
in  ability  to  extract  knowledge  from  every  source  open  to  him, 
considering  the  limitations  of  his  culture,  he  was  a  most  extraor- 
dinary man.  In  the  profundity  of  his  thought  upon  the  greatest 
subject  which  has  ever  moved  his  country,  his  depth  will  hardly 
be  truly  fathomed  for  yet  a  generation  or  two.  But  in  his  ability 
to  win  and  hold  the  affection  of  those  with  whom  he  came  in  con- 
tact, and  the  respect  and  esteem  of  those  with  whom  he  found  him- 
self in  opposition,  very  few  have  equalled  him  in  the  history  of  his 
country  and,  from  first  to  last,  his  voice  seems  ever  to  have  been 
"a  most  persuasive  one." 


INDEX 


Abbeville,  district,  sentiment  of,  con- 
cerning Free  School  Act  (1814),  62; 
mentioned,  65. 

Abolition,  petition  from  Kentucky  Society 
to  Congress,  67;  mentioned,  70;  Sena- 
tor King's  efforts  in  behalf  of,  184; 
documents  concerning,  taken  from 
Charleston  Post-office,  379;  mentioned, 
386,  394;  John  Quincy  Adams  pre- 
sents petition  to  Congress  concerning, 
398;  mentioned,  421,  423;  Calhoun  on, 
43°>  437;  mentioned,  451;  Rhett's 
resolution  concerning,  452;  mentioned, 
463;    Hayne  on,  479;    mentioned,  484, 

532- 

Academy  of  Art  and  Design,  men- 
tioned, 504 

Academy  of  Arts,   mentioned,    504 

Adams,  John,  mentioned,  4;  appoints 
Chief  Justice,  U.  S.  envoy  to  France, 
25;  mentioned,  39;  letter  of,  to  "'76" 
Association,  64;    mentioned,  176 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  minister  to  Russia, 
29;  in  Monroe's  cabinet,  88;  Presi- 
dential candidate,  128,  173,  174,  176, 
181;  Clay  explains  his  vote  for,  184; 
Charleston  organ  of,  210;  mentioned, 
213;  extracts  from  diary  of,  219;  enmity 
of,  to  Hayne,  226;  early  views,  227,  228, 
229;  extracts  from  diary,  233;  men- 
tioned, 249,  257;  criticises  Webster's 
constitutional  argument,  264;  men- 
tioned, 270,  301,  303;  extract  from 
diary,  304,  305;  desirous  of  concessions 
to  South  (1832),  313;  characterizes 
Proclamation,  331;  mentioned,  339; 
protests  against  Compromise  (1833), 
352;  introduces  in  Congress  petition  to 
abolish  slavery  in  District  of  Columbia, 
398;  mentioned,  421,  435,  436,  437,  440 

African  Slaves,  defeat  in  1788  of  bill 
in  S.  C.  Legislature,  permitting  impor- 
tation of,  3 

Aiken,  William,  mentioned,  278,  281, 
361,  426 

Alexander,   Daniel,   mentioned,    106 


Alexander  vs.  Gibson,  case  of,  93 
Allen,  Horatio,  mentioned,  374,  427 
Allston,  R.  F.  W.,  mentioned,  406 
Allston,   Washington,    mentioned,    199 
Alston,  Colonel  William,  entertainment 

of  Washington  by,  13;  obituary  of,  534 
Alston,  Governor  Joseph,  mentioned, 

61,  76,  129 
Alston,  Rebecca,   mentioned,    129,   534 
American  Friendly  Society,   toasts  at 

banquet  of  (1830),  269 
American  System,  The,  123,  161,  218, 

29°,  3OI»  3°2»  3°4,  3°7t  3J9»  349 
Apprentices    Library,    at    Charleston, 

S.C.,  mentioned,  200 
Ashmun,  Rev.  Doctor,  mentioned,  203, 

204 
Audubon,  John  James,  mentioned,  199 
Axson,  Jacob,  mentioned,  133 
Axson,  Paul,  mentioned,  317 

Bachman,  John,  mentioned,  199 

Bacot,  H.  H.,  mentioned,  43 

Baker,    Joseph,   Boston  memorialist  on 

tariff,  215 
Baker,  Captain  Richard  B.,  mentioned, 

288 
Baldwin  Bill,  The,  99,  105,  112 
Baldwin,  Judge  Henry,  mentioned,  99; 

interest  in  tariff  (1832),  305 
Bank  of  United  States,  The,  Calhoun's 

bill  in  regard  to,  70;   mentioned,  83,  84, 

85,   86,   87,   89,   90,   93,   94,    128,    146; 

Clay's  bill  concerning,  316 
Bankruptcy,  System  of,  mentioned,  153, 

210 
Baptists,  places  of  worship  at  Charleston 

in  (1826),  200 
Barbour,    Philip    Pendleton,    elected 

Speaker  of  U.  S.  House  of  Representa- 
tives,   105;    mentioned,    146;     defeated 

by   Clay  for  Speaker,    147 
Barbour,    Senator    James,    mentioned, 

149,   *5a.   184 
Barnwell,  Robert,  advises  nullification 

convention,  353;  mentioned,  359 


537 


538 


INDEX 


Beaufort,  district  of,  mentioned,   16 

Bennett,  Governor  Thomas,  men- 
tioned, 118,  130,  134,  282,  393 

Benton,  Senator  Thomas  H.,  allusions 
to  Hayne  by,  149,  182;  mentioned,  208, 
218;  allusion  to  Webster  by,  231,  232; 
mentioned,  233,  241,  254,  262,  299,  314; 
sustains  Jackson's  veto  of  Clay's  Bank 
Bill,  316;  story  of  Compromise  of  1833 
by.  3475  supports  Calhoun  against 
Clay's  amendment  of  tariff  bill  of 
(1833),  350;  mentioned,  464,  494,  49^, 
521 

Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees,  mentioned, 
32 

Berrien,  Senator  John  M.,  mentioned, 
225,  47°.  5°3 

Bibb,  Senator  William  W.,  Calhoun's 
second  in   affair  with   Grosvenor,   50 

Biddle,  Nicholas,  mentioned,  432 

Blair,  James,  secession  proposal  of,  315; 
mentioned,   368 

Blake,  John,  mentioned,  29 

Blanding,  Abraham,  mentioned,  117; 
railroad  proposal  of  Elias  Horry  to, 
375;  mentioned,  388,  395,  409;  Cal- 
houn's allusion  to,  413;  mentioned,  415; 
director  in  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419; 
mentioned,  487,  522,  523,  527 

Bo  at  wright,    J  ames,    commissioner    for 

5.  C.  Canal    &  R.  R.  Co.  (1827),  217 
Bonsal,  Joseph,  director  in  L.  C.   &  C. 

R.  R.  Co.,  419 
"  Botany    of     South     Carolina    and 

Georgia,"  Stephen  Elliott,  author  of,  71 
Boyce,  Ker,  memorialist  for  S.  C.  Canal 

&  R.  R.  Co.  (1827),    217;   mentioned, 

392,  409,  41S,  435,  469 
Brantford,  Susannah,  wife  of  Abraham 

Hayne,  15 
Brighthaupt,    Christian,   commissioner 

for  S.  C.  Canal  &  R.  R.  Co.  (1827),  217 
Brisbane,    engineer    employed    by    pro- 
moters of  L.  C.    &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  474; 

attacks  road,  496 
Brook,  Hon.  H.  F.,  Clay's  letter  to,  184 
Brown,   William    H.,    author   of   "First 

Locomotive  in  America,"  mentioned,  119 
Brown  Fellowship  Society,  mentioned, 

6,  68,   117,   209,  433,  434 
Bryan,  George  S.,  mentioned,  290 
Bryan,  Mr.,  mentioned,  342 

Bryce,  James,  author  of  "  American  Com- 
monwealth," mentioned,  59,  190 
Buchanan,  James,  mentioned,  160 


Buist,  Rev.  Doctor,  mentioned,  20 
Bulow  and  Potter  vs.  City  Council, 

case  of,  93,  107,  115 
Bulow,   J.  J.,  mentioned,   281 
Burden,  David,  free  man  of  color,  de- 
clared by  S.  C.  court  (1807),  competent 
witness,  31 
Burke,  Edmund,  mentioned,  252,  264 
Burr,  Aaron,  mentioned,  37 
Burrus,  Silas  E.,  mentioned,  343 
Butler,  A.  P.,  mentioned,  188,  283,  335 
Butler,  General  William,  mentioned, 

48 
Butler,    Governor    Pierce    M.,    men- 
tioned, 417 
Buyck,  Peter,  claim  of,  72 

Cadiz,    importation    from,  to    Charleston 

(1810),  46 
Caldwell,    John,   mentioned,    188 
Calhoun,  J.  A.,  mentioned,  469 
Calhoun,    James    Edward,    mentioned, 

an,  344,  405,  413,  438>  461,  522 
Calhoun  (Colhoun),  John  C.  aide-de- 
camp to  Governor  Drayton,  28;  men- 
tioned, 30,  32;  enters  Congress,  37; 
speaks  for  report  of  committee  on 
Foreign  Relations,  38,  39;  attends 
caucus  of  Republican  party,  40;  men- 
tioned, 41,  48;  administration  leader  in 
House,  49;  altercation  with  Grosvenor, 
50;  New  York  Evening  Post's  estimate 
of,  51;  supports  Monroe  against  Craw- 
ford at  caucus,  66;  bill  of,  concerning 
U.  S.  Bank,  74;  close  of  Congressional 
career,  84;  suggests  Hayne  for  Senate, 
107;  Secretary  of  War  and  Presidential 
candidate,  125,  126,  127,  138,  169,  170, 
187,  188;  declines  to  preside  in  Senate 
as  Vice-President  pending  investigation 
of  charges  against  himself,  210;  letter 
on  political  condition  of  Union,  211,  213; 
mentioned,  222,  227,  231;  views  on 
railroads,  268;  mentioned,  269,  270, 
277,  279;  letter  to  Van  Deventer,  286; 
breach  with  Jackson,  287;  taunted  by 
Charleston  Unionists,  290;  letter  on 
nullification,  292,  294;  mentioned,  296, 
298,  299,  300,  301,  302,  306;  opinion 
on  Van  Buren's  rejection  by  Senate 
as  Minister  to  England,  314;  mentioned, 
315,  318;  elected  to  U.  S.  Senate,  327; 
mentioned,  328,  331,  346;  member  of 
special  committee  on  Compromise  Bill, 
(1833),  349;    opposes  Force  BUI,  350 ; 


INDEX 


539 


comments  on  Force  Bill,  351;  fails  to 
advise  nullification  convention,  352;  ex- 
presses dissatisfaction  with  settlement, 
354;  power  in  S.  C,  356;  early  view 
of  nullification,  357;  mentioned,  359, 
362,  363,  366;  reception  in  Charleston 
and  utterances  (1833),  367,  368,  369, 
371;  mentioned,  373,  375,  383,  386, 
387;  letter  to  J.  S.  Williams,  389,  391; 
mentioned,  392;  views  of,  concerning 
railroad  transportation,  394,  395;  alludes 
to  speech  of  Congressman  Wise,  398; 
H.  L.  Pinckney's  difference  with,  399; 
selects  new  route  for  railroad,  400,  405, 
406;  letter  to  Patrick  Noble,  407;  men- 
tioned, 409,  412;  letter  to  James  Edward 
Calhoun,  413,  414;  mentioned,  416; 
director  in  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419; 
public  dinner  to,  at  Charleston,  420; 
mentioned,  423 ;  difference  with  Preston, 
431;  views  on  banking,  432;  speech  on 
banking,  433 ;  general  policy  of,  outlined 
in  letter  to  Hammond,  436,  437 ;  allusion 
of,  to  Van  Buren,  438;  allusion  of,  to 
McDuffie,  439;  mentioned,  440,  445, 
446,  447;  financial  views  of,  sustained 
by  S.  C.  Legislature,  450;  following  of, 
in  S.  C.  and  Congress,  451;  attitude  of, 
to  Rhett's  abolition  resolution,  452,  453; 
views  on  slavery,  459;  mentioned,  461; 
supported  by  Unionists  in  State,  462; 
refuses  to  attend  dinner  to  Preston,  463 ; 
correspondence  with  Thompson,  464; 
mentioned,  467,  469 ;  resigns  as  director 
in  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  and  first  let- 
ter concerning  same,  470,  471 ;  letter  of, 
considered,  473;  mentioned,  480;  second 
letter  of,  481-487;  mentioned,  491,  496, 
504,  521;  letter  to  James  Edward 
Calhoun  on  hearing  of  Hayne's  death, 
522,  523;  letter  considered,  belief  of, 
in  feasibility  of  electing  Gadsden  as 
successor  to  Hayne  and  Blanding, 
reasonable,  525;  Clingman's  allusion 
to,  527;  plan  of,  to  elect  Gadsden  de- 
feated, 529;  apparent  vindication  of 
position  of,  concerning  railroad  route 
in  1840,  530;  mentioned,  531,  533 

Calhoun  (Colhoun),  John  Ewing,  107, 
127,  138 

Cambridge  Modern  History,  men- 
tioned, 356 

Camden,  district  of,  mentioned,  6,   71 

Campbell,  Congressman  from  S.  C,  men- 
tioned,   451,    463 


Campbell,   Daniel,  mentioned,   507 
Campbell,  John    Wilson,  Congressman 

from   Ohio,   mentioned,    104 
Canning,   George,  protest  of,  as  British 
minister,  against  negro  law  of  S.  C,  178 
Cannon,  Newton,  Governor  of  Tennessee, 

mentioned,    392,   408 
Capital  of  South  Carolina,  vote  con- 
cerning,  3 
Cardozo,     J.   N.,   memorialist  for  S.   C. 

Canal   &  R.  R.  Co.  (1827),  217 
Carey,  Matthew,  mentioned,  342 
Carnes,  Peter,  mentioned,  5 
Carolina,  the  ship,  mentioned,  47 
Carson,   Joseph,   mentioned,   506 
Carter,   Colonel  F.,  mentioned,  392 
Cary,  J.  B.,  director  in  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R. 

Co.,  419 
Catholic  Miscellany,  published  at  Charles- 
ton (1826),  200 
Cattle's  Corps  of  Hussars,  mentioned, 

J3J 

Caucus,  of  Senators  and  Representatives 
in  U.  S.  Congress,  to  nominate  candidate 
for  Presidency,  40,  66,  147,  152;  of 
State  Rights  party  in  S.  C.  Legislature, 
to  nominate  candidate  for  Presidency, 
416 

Census  (1790),  6 

Chambers,  Ezekiel,  Senator  from  Mary- 
land, mentioned,  204,  205,  207,  225,  314 

Chandler,  John,  Senator  from  Maine, 
mentioned,   152,  209 

Charleston,  city  of,  voted  for,  as  capital 
of  S.  C,  5;  boundary  of  city,  popu- 
lation of  city  and  district  (1790),  6; 
theatre  and  college  grammar  school  of, 
19;  population  of  (1809),  29;  stock 
company  at  theatre  of,  30;  locomotive 
built  in  1834,  by  mechanics  of,  120; 
State  regulations  concerning  negroes 
entering  port  of,  178;  mechanics  of, 
201,  271;  mentioned,  454,  459;  tax 
collected  at  (1839),  500;  criticism  of, 
by   city    press,    503 

Charleston  and  Cincinnati  Railroad, 
385,  391,  395,  4°o,  401,  403,  4°5,  406, 
407,  408,  409,  411,  415,  418,  419,  420, 
425,  427,  44i,  448,  455,  459,  463,  465, 
467,  468,  471,  473,  479,  481,  485,  5°5» 
513,  514;  see  also  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co. 

Charleston  and  Hamburg  Railroad, 
124,  315,  321,  361,  365,  374,  438,  444, 
453,  458,  465,  477,  5".  5J3»  526,  529; 
see  also   Hamburg   Railroad. 


540 


INDEX 


Charleston  Library  Society,  199,  504 

Charleston  Mercury,  200 

Charleston   Riflemen,   132 

Cheeseborough,  E.,  engineer  employed  by 
L.  C.   &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  505,  515 

Cheves,  Langdon,  State  Senator,  27; 
Attorney-General,  S.  C,  28;  mentioned, 
29,  30,  32;  enters  Congress,  33;  speech 
of,  on  non-intercourse  bill,  34,  35; 
mentioned,  37,  38,  39,  40,  41,  42;  speech 
on  bill  for  increase  of  army,  43,  44; 
speech  on  Merchants'  Bonds,  45 ;  men- 
tioned, 49;  elected  Speaker  of  U.  S. 
House  of  Representatives,  50;  New 
York  Evening  Post's  estimate  of,  51,  52; 
declines  reelection  to  Congress,  60; 
toasted  at  Abbeville,  S.  C,  65;  men- 
tioned, 71,  73,  84;  president  of  U.  S. 
Bank,  85 ;  letters  from  Hayne  to,  87,  89 ; 
mentioned,  91,  93;  suggested  for 
President  of  U.  S.  by  Kentucky  paper, 
128;  mentioned,  138;  letters  from 
Hayne  to,  146;  mentioned,  175,  181, 
258,  279,  282,  318,  319;  opposes  Cal- 
houn on  divorce  of  bank  and  State,  445 ; 
mentioned,  515 

Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States, 
speech  of  Charles  Pinckney,  in  opposi- 
tion to  appointment  of,  as  Minister  to 
France,  by  Adams,  25 

Choiseul,  Count  de,  pall-bearer  at 
funeral  of  Robert   Y.  Hayne,   515 

Cincinnati,  South  Carolina  Society  of, 
opposes  practice  of  duelling,  47 

Citadel,  request  to  U.  S.  authorities  at 
Charleston,  S.C.,  to  remove  Federal 
troops  from,  320;  Nullification  Ball  at, 
358 

City  Gazette,  200 

City  Guard,  of  Charleston,  mentioned, 
132,  380 

Clay,  Henry,  mentioned,  32;  first  entry 
into  U.  S.  Senate,  33;  elected  Speaker 
of  U.  S.  House  of  Representatives,  37; 
mentioned,  39,  41,  45,  49;  appointed 
peace  commissioner,  50;  mentioned,  52; 
attends  Republican  caucus,  66;  in  op- 
position to  administration,  88;  speech 
on  Missouri  Question,  99,  100;  style 
of  speaking  described  by  contemporary, 
101;  mentioned,  102,  112,  144,  146; 
elected  Speaker  in  opposition  to  P.  P. 
Barbour,  147;  mentioned,  154,  175; 
letter  of,  to  Hon.  H.  F.  Brook,  184; 
opposition  to    confirmation  of,    as   Sec- 


retary of  State,  185;  mentioned,  187, 
190,  193,  206,  211,  213,  229,  247; 
enters  U.  S.  Senate  for  second  time, 
300;  father  of  the  American  System, 
301,  302;  tribute  of,  to  William  Lowndes, 
303;  intolerance  of,  304;  resolution 
of,  concerning  tariff  (1832),  305;  men- 
tioned, 306;  threatens  S.  C,  312,  313; 
opposes  Van  Buren's  appointment  as 
Minister  to  England,  314;  mentioned, 
315;  attempts  to  pass  Bank  Bill  over 
President's  veto,  316;  bill  of,  to  modify 
tariff,  347,  348,  349;  amendment  of, 
to  Compromise  bill,  350;  taunts  Web- 
ster, 351;  responsibility  of,  for  nullifi- 
cation, 357;  mentioned,  435,  437,  453. 
465,    494,    496 

Clayton,  John  M.,  Congressman,  men- 
tioned, 347,  349 

Clingman,  T.  L.,  mentioned,  506,  507; 
criticises  Gadsden's  report  on  L.  C.  & 
C.  R.  R.  Co.,  511;  moves  to  table  both 
reports,  512;  speech  of  in  reply  to  C.  G. 
Memminger  and  in  defence  of  Hayne  and 
Blanding,   526,   527;    result  of  speech, 

529 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  Presidential  candi- 
date, 42 

Colcock,    Charles    Jones,    mentioned, 

4iS»  49° 

Colleton,  John  Hayne  settles  in  (1700), 
1 5 ;  District,  sentiment  concerning  Free 
School  Act  (1814),  62 

Colonization  Society,  speeches  in  U.  S. 
Senate  on,  202-207;  resolution  of  S.  C. 
Legislature  in  reference  to,  218;  entry 
in  John  Quincy  Adams's  diary  concern- 
ing, 228 

Columbia,  city  of,  chosen  as  capital  of 
S.  C,  3 

Compromise  Act  (1833),  347,  350,  369, 

449 
Congregationalists,    places   of   worship 

at  Charleston,  S.C.,  in  (1826),  200 
Conner,  Henry  W.,  mentioned,   195 
Constitutional      Convention     (1787), 

act   commissioning  deputies  to,   4,  289, 

293.  333.  338 
Constitution     of      South      Carolina 

(179°).  J>  3.  7,  73 
Constitution  of  United  States,  vote 
of  S.  C.  Legislature  (1788)  to  postpone 
ratification  of,  and  to  refuse  to  ratify,  3; 
procession  at  Charleston  in  celebration 
of  ratification,  6;    mentioned,  259,  263, 


INDEX 


541 


264,  27a,  289,  293,  294,  297,  298,  325, 
329,   33^    337,   344,   355 

Constitution  (U.  S.  frigate),  mentioned,  42 

Cooper,  actor,  mentioned,  46,  47 

Cooper,  Dr.  Thomas,  political  pamphlet 
of,   176;    mentioned,  279 

Corbett,  Mr.,  mentioned,  7 

Courier,   The,    200 

Courtenay,  Hon.  William  A.,  men- 
tioned, 458 

Crafts,  William,  mentioned,  48,  62,  72; 
candidate  for  Congress,   75 

Crawford,  William  H.,  defeated  by 
Monroe  in  caucus  to  select  Presidential 
candidate,  66;  aspirant  for  Presidency, 
88;   mentioned,  105,  125,  137,  147,  213, 

270,  357 
Cross,    George    Warren,    counsel    for 

Denmark   Vesey,  132;     memorialist  for 

S.  C.  Canal  &  R.  R.  Co.  (1827),  216,  217 
Crozier,   John  H.,   mentioned,   493 
Cruft,  Edward,  Boston  memorialist  on 

tariff,  215 

Dallas,  George  M.,  Senator  from  Penn- 
sylvania,  mentioned,   314,   349,   350 

Dane,  Nathan,  mentioned,  243,  244,  255 

Dangue,  epidemic  of,  at  Charleston,  S.C., 
221 

Davie,  W.  F.,  mentioned,  409,  446 

Dawson,  William  C,  Congressman  from 
Georgia,   mentioned,   392 

Deane,  Mary,  wife  of  John  Hayne,  the 
settler,  15 

Deas,  Henry,  mentioned,   132,  217,  317 

Declaration  of  Independence,  celebra- 
tion of,  at  Charleston,  S.C.  (1800), 
described,  25 

Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Com- 
pany, mentioned,   120 

De  Saussure,  H.  A.,  mentioned,  281,  317, 
404 

Dexter,  Samuel,  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts,   mentioned,    251 

Dickerson,  Mahlon,  Senator  from  New 
Jersey,  replies  to  Hayne's  speech  on  tar- 
iff  (1824),    155;    mentioned,   218,   230, 

3°i,   3°5,   349 
Donaldson,  Major  A.  J.,  mentioned,  448 
Dotterer,     Thomas,     mentioned,     121; 
maker    of    first    locomotive    made    by 
Charleston  shop,   271;    mentioned,   374 
Drayton,  Governor  John,  mentioned,  28 
Drayton,    Lieutenant,    engineer,    men- 
tioned, 419 


Drayton,  William,  Recorder  of  city  of 
Charleston,  94;  member  of  first  court 
charged  with  trial  of  Negro  Insurrec- 
tionists, 132;  mentioned,  194,  221; 
indorsed  for  Congress  by  both  State 
Rights  and  Unionist  parties  at  Charles- 
ton, 281,  287,   317,  397,  421 

Duelling,  Walter  Taylor  convicted  and 
sentenced  for,  in  Edgefield  district 
(1813),  47;  trial  of  John  Edwards  for, 
82 ;  bill  in  Congress  by  Charles  Pinckney 
to  prevent,  on  Federal  territory,  118; 
effect  of  Moser's  law  against,  in  quarrel 
between  Petigru  and  Hunt,  198;  code 
published   by   ex-Governor  Wilson,    453 

Dunkin,  B.  F.,  mentioned,   281,  470 

Earle,   mentioned,  507 
Eason,    mentioned,    374 
Edings,  Mary,  wife  of  John  Hayne,  2d,  15 
Edmonston,    Charles,    mentioned,    217, 
387,  392,  409,  415;   director  in  L.  C.  & 
C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419 
Edwards,  John,  case  of  State  against  for 

violation  of  duelling  law,  82 
Elliott,   Bishop,   mentioned,   354,   381 
Elliott,  B.,  letter  of  John  Adams  to,  as 
member   of    committee   of    '"76"     As- 
sociation, 64 
Elliott,  Stephen,  mentioned,  30;  opposes 
William     Lowndes    for    Congress,    41; 
author  of   "Botany   of  South   Carolina 
and     Georgia,"     collector    of     "Elliott 
Herbarium,"  71;  mentioned,  91;  chair- 
man committee  framing  memorial  against 
tariff   bill  (1820),  106;    mentioned,  107, 
108,    123;  elected   honorary  member  of 
Linneaean  Society  at  Paris,   189;    com- 
missioner for  S.  C.  Canal  &  R.  R.  Co. 
(1827),  217;  thorough  comprehension  in 
1828   of  possibilities   of   railway  trans- 
portation by,  387 
Elmore,  F.  H.,  mentioned,  415;    director 

in  L.  C.   &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419 
Elson,  Henry  W.,  history  of  U.  S.  by, 
mentioned,    32;     mentioned,    155,    298 
Embargo,  mentioned,  49 
Episcopalians,     places     of    worship     at 

Charleston   (1826),   200 
Erven,    James,    mentioned,   99 
Evans,   D.  R.,   mentioned,   91,   217 
Evans,   Oliver,  mentioned,    121,   271 
Ewart,  David,  mentioned,   217 
Ewing,    Thomas,    Senator    from    Ohio, 
mentioned,   312,   456 


542 


INDEX 


Fairchild  vs.  Bell,  case  of,  67 
Faneuil  Hall,   nullification    meeting  at 

(1811),  35,  36,  95,  252 
Featherstonaugh,  engineer,  419 
Federalists,  see  Federal  Party 
Federal    Party,    18,    29,   41,    72,   269, 

460 
Fennel,  actor,  mentioned,  47 
Fisk,    member    of    Congress    from    New 

York,   mentioned,   35 
Fiske,    Rev.    Theophilus,     mentioned, 

43° 
Fitch,  A.,  mentioned,  331 
Fitzsimons,  Paul,  commissioner  for  S.  C. 

Canal   &  R.  R.  Co.,  217 
Fleming,  Thomas,  memorialist  for  S.  C. 

Canal   &  R.  R.  Co.  (1827),  217 
Floyd,     John,     Governor    of     Virginia, 

nominated  by  Legislature   of   S.  C.  for 

Presidency    (1832),  321;     letter    of,    to 

Governor  Hayne,   345 
Foote,    Samuel  A.,   Senator   from   Con- 
necticut,  mentioned,   250 
Foote' s  Resolution,  231,  235 
Force  Bill,  349,  35°,  351,  353.  356»  452, 

453;    see  also    Revenue    Collection  Bill 
Ford,   Timothy,  commissioner  for  S.   C. 

Canal    &  R.  R.  Co.,  217 
Foreign     Trade,      Charles     Pinckney's 

opinion  on,  22 
Forney,  Thomas  J.,  director  in  L.  C.  & 

C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419 
Forsyth,  John,  member  of  Congress  from 

Georgia,  later  Senator,  mentioned,   175; 

speech  of,  in  Senate,  against  nullification, 

347,   349 
Fort  Moultrie,  anniversary  of  battle  of, 

celebrated    at    Charleston,     S.C.,     220; 

last  survivor  of,  288 
Foster,  William,  Boston  memorialist  on 

tariff,  215 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  mentioned,   18 
Franklin  Society,  199 
Fraser,   Charles,   mentioned,    199 
Free  Colored  Persons,  6,  31   35,  67,  68, 

69,  71,  79,  98,  113,  114,  119,  131,  134, 

136,   183,  205,  208,  433,  501 
Free  Schools,  48,  62,  66,  80,  199 
Free  Trade,  248,  301 
Frenaud,  Peter,  mentioned,  29 
French  Protestants,  places  of  worship 

at  Charleston  (1826),   200 
Frost,  Mr.,  mentioned,  342 
Fulton,  Robert,  mentioned,  122 
Furman,  Charles  M.,  mentioned,  133 


Gadsden,  Mr.,  murdered  by  Touheys,  83 

Gadsden,  Colonel  James,  examination 
of  Tuckaseege  route  by,  405;  previous 
letter  of,  to  Hayne,  406 ;  praises  Georgia 
Road,  435;  allusions  to  early  surveys 
of  French  Broad  route  by,  441,  473, 
474,  475,  487;  criticises  management 
of  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  at  annual 
meeting,  506,  507,  511,  512;  suggested 
by  Calhoun  as  fitted  for  presidency  of 
both  bank  and  road,  522,  mentioned, 
525,  526;  Clingman's  opposition  to, 
S28,   529 

Gaillard,  Senator  John,  elected  Presi- 
dent of  U.  S.  Senate,  149;  death  of, 
188 

Galignani,  mentioned,  381 

Gallagher,  Rev.  Doctor,  mentioned, 
20 

Garden,  Major  Alexander,  mentioned, 
196,  197,  199,  220,  221 

Gardenier,  member  of  Congress  from 
New  York,  mentioned,  35 

Garnett,  Robert,  Congressman  from 
Virginia,  mentioned,  174 

Gaston,  William,  member  of  Congress 
from   N.   C,   mentioned,    50 

Geddes,  John,  Governor  of  S.  C,  men- 
tioned, 29,  130 

Gell,  State's  witness  in  negro  insurrec- 
tion trials,   137 

George,  slave  owned  by  Wilson  family, 
chief  witness  in  negro  insurrection 
trials,  131,  137 

Georgetown,   district  of,  mentioned,   6 

Georgia,  mentioned,  23;  Botany  of,  71, 
Historical    Society   of,    established,    503 

German  Protestants,  places  of  worship 
of,  at  Charleston,  S.C.  (1826),  200 

Gist,   John,   mentioned,  48,    175 

Glascock,  Congressman,  mentioned,  398 

Godard,    Rene,    mentioned,    217,    283 

Goddard,  Nathaniel,  Boston  memorial- 
ist on  tariff,  214 

Goddard,  William,  Boston  memorialist 
on  tariff,  215 

Gold,  member  of  Congress  from  New 
York,    mentioned,  44 

Golf,  location  of  links  in  Charleston  in 
eighteenth  century,    19 

Goodman,   Duke,  mentioned,    106 

Gordon,  John,  member  of  second  court  on 
Negro  Insurrection,  133 

Gospel  Messenger,  published  at  Charleston, 
S.C.  (1826),  200 


INDEX 


543 


Grand  Jury  of  Charleston  District, 
presentments  of  (1816),  68,   134 

Graves-Cilley  Duel,  453 

Gray,  Thomas,  inventor,  mentioned,  120 

Gray,  Hon.  William,  mentioned,  121; 
death  of,    215 

Grayson,  William,  mentioned,  83 

Green,  Duff,  editor  Telegraph,  men- 
tioned, 287,  320,  398;  advice  of,  to 
Calhoun  to  be  for  Van  Buren  or  against 
him,   437;   mentioned,   463 

Green,  William,  director  L.  C.  &  C. 
R.  R.  Co.,  419 

Gregg,  James  R.,  mentioned,   188 

Gresham,  Congressman  from  S.  C, 
mentioned,  461 

Grimke,  Thomas  S.,  mentioned,  342 

Grosvenor,  Congressman  from  New 
York,   mentioned,   50,    175 

Grundy,  Felix,  mentioned,  32,  49; 
defeated  by  Cheves  for  Speaker  U.  S. 
House  of  Representatives,  50;  men- 
tioned, 270,  280,  347,  349 

Guerriere   (British    frigate),  mentioned,  42 

"H,"  correspondent  suggesting  in  columns 
of  Charleston  paper,  practicability  of 
operating  railway  between  Charleston, 
Augusta,  and  Columbia,  by  steam  power 
(1821),  118,  119,  120,  i2i,  124,  140,  189, 

387 
Haiti,  mentioned,  192 
Hamburg  Railroad,  124,  315,  321,  361, 

365,  374,  438,  444,  5°9,  5ri»  5*3,  526, 
529;  see  also  Charleston  and  Hamburg 
R.  R. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  mentioned,  51, 
161 

Hamilton,  Major  James,  mentioned,  196, 
288 

Hamilton,  James,  Jr.,  127;  leader  of 
State  Rights  party  at  Charleston  (1830), 
278;  mentioned,  280,  282,  318;  presi- 
dent of  nullification  convention,  319; 
address  of,  as  Governor,  320;  mentioned, 
322,  346,  352,  359,  362,  367,  392,  409; 
director  in  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419; 
mentioned,  435;  opposes  Calhoun's 
financial  policy  in  S.  C.  Legislature,  446, 
450,  451;  mentioned,  453;  speech  of, 
on  divorce  of  bank  and  State,  461,  462; 
mentioned,  482,  484 

Hammond,  J.  H.,  mentioned,  287,  469 

Hampton,  Wade,  mentioned,  388;  sub- 
scribes for  deficiency,  to  secure  charter 


for  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  407;  men- 
tioned, 409 
Harby,  Isaac,  editor  City  Gazette  (182 1), 
comments  of,  on  report  of  Massachusetts 
Legislature  concerning  negro  and  mu- 
latto residents,  114;  comments  of,  on 
nullification  in  Ohio  and  Virginia,  115, 
116,  117 
Hardy,  F.  E.,  director  in  L.   C.    &  C. 

R.  R.  Co.,  419 
Harleston    Green,    golfing    ground    in 

Charleston  in  eighteenth  century,   19 
Harper,  William,  appointed  by  Governor 
Manning  to  fill  vacancy  in  U.  S.  Senate 
occasioned  by  death  of  Senator  Gaillard, 
188;  selected  to  draft  nullification  ordi- 
nance,  319;    dissents    from  opinion    of 
Supreme  Court   of  S.  C.  declaring  test 
oath  unconstitutional,  375 
Harris,  Cicero,  mentioned,   232 
Harrison,    William    H.,    reply   of,     to 
Senator    Smith    in    U.    S.    Senate    con- 
cerning Naval  Academy,  209 ;   promoter 
of    railroad     between     Cincinnati     and 
Charleston,     385;     Presidential     candi- 
date, 395,  416 
Hartford  Convention,  243,  244 
Hatton  Colliery,  120 
Havana,  slave  ships  at,  73,  504 
Hayne,  Abraham,   mentioned,   15 
Hayne,  Arthur  P.,  mentioned,  40,  63,  88; 
account  of  last  meeting  between  General 
Jackson  and  Robert  Y.  Hayne  by,  448 
Hayne,    Colonel  Isaac,    mentioned,    15 
Hayne,   John,  founder  of  family  settles 

in  Colleton  County,  S.C.  (1700),  15 
Hayne,  John,  2d,  mentioned,  15 
Hayne,  Paul  Hamilton,  mentioned,  57; 
comment  of,  on  "Webster's  Reply,"  264 
Hayne,  Robert  Y.,  birth  of,  16;  dis- 
position of,  as  a  youth,  27;  law  student 
in  office  of  Langdon  Cheves,  34;  en- 
listment of,  during  War  of  18 12  in 
Charleston  Cadet  Infantry,  40;  begins 
the  practice  of  law,  41 ;  cases  of,  before 
court  of  appeals,  42;  member  of  com- 
mittee to  present  sword  to  Lieutenant 
Shubrick,  43;  intimacy  with  family 
of  Charles  Pinckney,  47;  marriage  to 
Frances  Henrietta  Pinckney,  48;  first 
oration  of,  52,  54;  controversy  excited 
by  oration,  55;  criticism  of,  from 
literary  standpoint,  57;  knowledge 
displayed  concerning  governmental 
questions  by,   58,   59;    nominated    and 


544 


INDEX 


elected  at  head  of  Republican  ticket  for 
seat  in  S.  C.  House  of  Representatives 
from  Charleston,  60;  appointed  by 
Governor  Quartermaster- General  of 
State,  61;  mentioned,  63;  letter  of 
John  Adams  to,  as  member  of  com- 
mittee, '"76"  association,  64;  influence 
in  Legislature  of,  66;  popularity  of, 
70,  72;  carries  change  in  Constitution 
of  State  concerning  courts,  73;  mis- 
taken view  of,  concerning  manu- 
factures in  South,  74;  elected  Speaker 
S.  C.  House  of  Representatives,  77; 
opposes  amendment  of  U.  S.  Constitu- 
tion, 78 ;  opposes  repeal  of  act  prohibit- 
ing importation  of  negroes  from  other 
States  and  Territories,  80;  unanimously 
elected  Attorney-General  of  S.  C,  81; 
prosecution  of  Edwards  under  duelling 
law  by,  82 ;  prosecution  of  the  Touheys 
by,  83;  letters  of,  to  Langdon  Cheves, 
85,  87,  89,  90,  91;  argues  case  of  Bulow 
and  Potter  vs.  City  Council,  92,  93,  94; 
member  of  committee,  framing  memorial 
concerning  tariff  (1820),  106;  Calhoun's 
opinion  of,  108;  reasons  for  believing 
him  to  be  "H,"  122,  123,  124;  letter 
of,  to  William  Lowndes,  126,  127; 
marriage  of,  with  Rebecca  Alston,  129; 
mentioned,  130;  in  command  of  all 
troops  on  night  of  expected  negro  in- 
surrection, 132;  member  of  second 
court  appointed  to  try  insurrectionists, 
133;  tribute  of  Governor  Bennett  to, 
134;  suggested  for  U.  S.  Senate  by 
Calhoun,  138;  brought  out  in  opposi- 
tion to  Crawford's  supporter  Smith, 
139;  supported  by  Federal  papers,  140, 
141;  advocated  by  H.  L.  Pinckney, 
142;  elected,  143;  letter  of,  to  Calhoun 
in  behalf  of  Petrie,  145;  letters  to  Lang- 
don Cheves,  146,  147;  enters  U.  S. 
Senate,  149;  description  of,  by  Benton, 
150;  first  resolution  of,  in  Senate,  151; 
speech  of,  in  support  of  report  of  Naval 
Committee,  152;  views  of,  concerning 
Supreme  Court  of  U.  S.,  153;  leader 
of  faction  in  Senate  opposed  to  increase 
of  duties,  154;  estimate  of,  by  historian 
Elson  and  by  Benton,  155;  successful 
amendments  to  tariff  bill  by,  156; 
speech  against  tariff  (1824),  158-169; 
controversy  with  ex-Senator  Smith, 
170,  173;  Poinsett  advised  to  consult, 
174;    mentioned,   176;    letter  of,  to  C. 


C.  Pinckney,  Jr.,  180-182;  chairman 
of  select  committee  on  Lafayette  grant, 
182;  opposes  Senator  King's  emanci- 
pation resolution,  184;  opposes  con- 
firmation of  Henry  Clay  as  Secretary  of 
State,  185;  appointed  chairman  on  com- 
mittee on  Naval  Affairs,  187;  speech 
against  Panama  Mission,  190-193; 
mentioned,  194;  speech  against  Col- 
onization Society,  202-208;  carries 
bill  for  increase  of  navy  through  Senate 
against  opposition  of  colleague,  209- 
210;  mentioned,  213;  presents  me- 
morial of  citizens  of  Boston  against 
higher  duties,  214,  215;  opposes  tariff 
of  (1828),  218;  unanimous  reelection 
to  Senate,  222;  speech  of,  in  support  of 
protest  of  S.  C.  against  protecting  duties, 
223;  first  clash  with  Webster,  224; 
defeats  Webster's  resolution  to  print 
President's  Message  and  documents 
relating  to  Panama  Congress,  225;  in- 
curs enmity  of  Adams,  226,  227; 
Adams's  characterization  of,  upon  de- 
feat of  Webster's  resolution,  229;  in- 
fluence of,  in  session  of  (1829-30),  230; 
Webster's  reasons  for  attacking,  231, 
232;  motives  assigned  to,  by  John 
Quincy  Adams,  233;  speech  of,  on 
public  lands,  and  assault  of  Webster 
on,  235-238;  personal  gifts  of,  con- 
sidered in  relation  to  Webster's,  239, 
240;  reply  of,  to  Webster,  241-252; 
Webster  corrected  by,  260-262;  ar- 
gument of,  that  Constitution  is  a  com- 
pact between  each  State  and  the  U.  S., 
263;  response  of,  to  Webster's  per- 
oration, 264;  comparison  by  Phila- 
delphia Gazette  of  Webster  and,  265; 
President  Jackson's  opinions  of  speech 
of,  266;  election  of,  to  office  of  Major- 
General  S.  C.  Militia,  268;  criticism 
of,  by  Charleston  Federals,  269;  op- 
position of  colleague  Senator  William 
Smith  to  argument  of,  270;  speech  of, 
on  pension  laws,  272,  273;  estimate  of 
certain  Northern  papers  of,  274,  275; 
nature  of  Edward  Livingston's  opposi- 
tion to,  276;  Dr.  Thomas  Cooper's  allu- 
sion to,  279;  dinner  in  honor  of,  together 
with  William  Drayton,  280 ;  letter  of,  to 
Colonel  Thomas  Pinckney,  281;  ora- 
tion on  July  4,  183 1,  of,  287-289;  use 
of  speech  of,  291;  the  historian  Elson's 
accusation    against,    298;    exertions   of, 


INDEX 


545 


to  remove  cause  of  discontent,  300; 
loyalty  of,  to  Calhoun,  301,  302;  speech 
of,  on  Clay's  resolution  concerning  the 
tariff  (1832),  305-311;  mentioned,  312; 
opposes  appointment  of  Van  Buren  as 
Minister  to  England,  314;  mentioned, 
315;  assists  Benton  in  sustaining  Presi- 
dent Jackson's  veto  of  Clay's  Bank 
Bill,  316;  efforts  of,  for  fair  election 
on  nullification  issue,  317;  remarks 
of  opposition  press  concerning,  318; 
appointed  by  nullification  convention, 
to  draft  exposition  of  proceedings,  319; 
mentioned,  320;  resigns  from  U.  S. 
Senate  and  elected  Governor  of  S.  C, 
321,  322;  inaugural  of,  as  Governor  of, 
323-326;  inaugural  of,  responsible  for 
Jackson's  Proclamation,  327;  Living- 
ston's agreement  in  some  parts  with 
constitutional  argument  of,  328;  men- 
tioned, 330;  requested  by  State  Legis- 
lature to  reply  to  Presidential  procla- 
mation, 331;  characterization  by  John 
Quincy  Adams  of  reply  of,  332 ;  counter 
proclamation  of,  333-339;  personal 
grievance  of,  against  President  Jackson, 
340;  mentioned,  341;  letter  of,  to 
Silas  E.  Burrus  of  New  York,  343; 
Governor  of  Virginia  Floyd  communi- 
cates with,  345;  mentioned,  346,  348; 
succeeds  Hamilton  as  president  of 
nullification  convention,  352;  toasted 
on  St.  Patrick's  day  at  Charleston,  S.  C, 
for  successful  conduct  of  affairs,  353; 
incident  narrated  to  Bishop  Elliott  by, 
354;  mentioned,  356,  362,  363;  char- 
acter of,  as  indicated  by  public  and 
official  utterances,  364,  368,  371,  373, 
375;  a  private  citizen  after  twenty  years 
of  public  life,  378;  called  upon  in  Post- 
office  trouble,  379;  value  of  his  leader- 
ship in  that  matter,  380,  381;  early 
interest  in  subject  of  railways,  383; 
causes  of  inability  to  prosecute  early 
inquiries,  384;  lively  interest  in  Western 
railroad  project,  385,  386;  praise  of 
Stephen  Elliott,  Poinsett,  Edmonston, 
and  Horry  by,  387;  argument  of,  for 
Western  Railroad,  388-389;  Judge 
O'Neall's  letter  to,  391;  writes  to  Cin- 
cinnati meeting,  392 ;  views  concerning 
slavery,  considered,  393;  why  Western 
connection  meant  so  much  to  him,  394; 
work  of,  for  railroad,  400;  chosen 
president  of  Knoxville  convention,  401; 


comment  of  Courier  on,  402 ;  Professor 
Ulrich  B.  Phillips's  criticism,  of  his  ad- 
dress as  president  considered,  403;  dis- 
approves of  course  of  H.  L.  Pinckney, 
405;  letter  of,  concerning  Tuckaseege 
route,  406,  407;  member  of  committee 
to  appeal  to  State  Legislature,  409;  re- 
formation of  railroad  plans  by,  to  meet 
objections  urged  in  Governor  McDuf- 
fie's  Message,  411;  mentioned,  414; 
elected  president  of  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R. 
Co.,  418;  mentioned,  420;  declines 
reelection  to  Mayoralty,  42 1 ;  men- 
tioned, 423;  replies  to  attack  on  L,  C. 
&  C.  R.  R.  Co.  by  anonymous  corre- 
spondent, 427;  Mercury's  comment  on, 
428;  mentioned,  430;  critieised  by 
ex-Governor  Lyde  Wilson  and  Waddy 
Thompson,  431;  on  negro  population 
of  Charleston,  433;  energy  and  in- 
dustry of,  exhibited  as  Mayor,  435; 
statement  of  national  policy  of,  440; 
statement  of  plans  of  L.  C.  &  C.  Co. 
by,  442,  445;  mentioned,  446;  reception 
of,  at  Nashville,  447,  448;  last  meeting 
with  Andrew  Jackson,  449;  disarms 
hostility  of  S.  C.  Legislature  to  rail- 
road, 450;  mentioned,  453;  appeals  to 
Charleston  in  behalf  of  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R. 
Co.,  454;  appeals  to  State,  455-458; 
made  head  of  committee  of  citizens  of 
Charleston  on  occasion  of  conflagration, 
460;  mentioned,  462;  praised  by  both 
factions  in  State,  463;  mentioned  for 
President  of  the  U.  S.  by  Georgia  paper, 
464;  reception  of,  in  Kentucky,  465; 
mentioned,  467,  471;  letter  of,  to  Cal- 
houn, 473;  mentioned,  480,  481,  485, 
486;  views  of,  concerning  union  of 
management  of  bank  and  railroad, 
487;  letter  from  King  to,  489;  men- 
tioned, 491,  492;  in  connection  with 
Legare  and  Preston  revives  Southern 
Review,  493;  letter  of,  to  Courier,  con- 
cerning rejection  of  Van  Buren  as 
Minister  to  England,  494,  495,  496; 
denies,  as  president,  report  that  rail- 
road will  stop  at  Columbia,  497;  men- 
tioned, 499,  501,  502,  505;  death  of, 
515;  Petigru's  estimate  of,  516;  various 
estimates  of,  by  men  and  journals,  517; 
plan  of  City  Council  to  raise  monument 
to,  518;  allusion  to,  521;  Calhoun's 
letter  commenting  on  death  of,  522, 
523;    course  of  Calhoun  in  reference  to 


2  N 


546 


INDEX 


reputation  of,  considered,  532;  obituary 
of  Colonel  Alston  by,  533,  534 
Haywood,  William  H.,  Speaker  of  N.  C. 
House  of  Representatives,  opposes  grant 
of  banking  facilities  by  State  to  L.  C.  & 
C.  R.  R.  Co.,  418 
Henry   Letters,  mentioned,  39 
Heyward,  Nathaniel,  mentioned,  132 
Hey  ward,  Thomas,  mentioned,   7,   10 
Hill,  Isaac,   Senator  from  New  Hamp- 
shire,  mentioned,   350 
Holbrook,  John    Edwards,  mentioned, 

198 
Holmes,  I.  E.,  characterization  of  Jack- 
son by,  341;    mentioned,  469,  470,  506, 

5°7»  5" 

Holmes,*  John,  member  of  Congress  from 
Massachusetts,  99 ;  Senator  from  Maine, 
153,  230 

Holmes,  John  B.,  recorder  of  Charleston 
(1791),  8 

Horry,  Elias,  work  as  president  of 
Charleston  and  Hamburg  Railroad, 
361;  great  railroad  policy  of,  365; 
death  of,  384;  probable  influence  of,  in 
exciting  interest  in  the  West  con- 
cerning railroad  connection  with  the 
South,  385;  Hayne's  appreciation  of 
services   of,    387;     mentioned,    426 

Hort,  Elias  B.,  mentioned,  281 

Houston,  letter  appearing  in  "Critical 
Study  of  Nullification"  by,   173 

Huger,  Alfred,  letter  of,  to  Amos 
Kendall,  379;  letter  of,  to  Charles 
Manigault,  381;  defeated  by  H.  L. 
Pinckney  for  Congress,  397;  opposes 
indorsement  of  Pinckney  at  Unionist 
meeting,  404;  speaks  at  meeting  where 
Fiske  is  struck,  430;  defends  direction 
of  L.  C.   &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  506,  507,  512 

Huger,  Daniel  Elliott,  on  committee 
-'to  present  sword  to  Lieutenant  Shu- 
brick,  43;  opposes  attempt  to  over- 
throw Free  School  System,  48;  popu- 
larity of,  70;  appointed  chairman  of  im- 
portant committee  in  S.  C.  Legislature 
by  Speaker  Bennett,  72;  supports 
change  of  State  Constitution  concern- 
ing Appellate  Court,  73;  candidate  for 
Congress  in  opposition  to  William 
Crafts  and  Charles  Pinckney,  75;  ap- 
pointed chairman  of  committee  of  Ways 
and  Means,  S.  C.  Legislature  by  Speaker 
Hayne,  77;  supports  amendment  to 
Constitution  of  U.  S.,  78;    opposes  bill 


for  repeal  of  act  prohibiting  importa- 
tion of  negroes  from  other  States  and 
Territories,  80,  98;  candidate  for  U.  S. 
Senate  against  William  Smith,  193; 
mentioned,  246;  leader  of  Unionist 
party  at  Charleston  (1830),  278; 
elected  to  Legislature  by  Unionists,  281 ; 
mentioned,  282;  leader  of  faction  in 
Legislature,  283;  secures  vote  for 
amendment  to  Preston's  resolution 
calling  nullification  convention,  de- 
feating call,  284,  285 ;  signer  of  Unionist 
address  (1832),  297;  framer  of  Unionist 
Remonstrance  and  Protest,  332;  men- 
tioned, 393,  492;  defends  direction  of 
L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  506,  507,  511,  512, 
513;  pall-bearer  at  funeral  of  Robert 
Y.  Hayne,  515 
Hunt,  B.  F.,  opposes  amendment  to  U.  S. 
Constitution,  78;  description  of,  by 
William  Grayson,  83;  advocate  of 
State  Rights  in  S.  C.  Legislature,  188; 
quarrel  with  Petigru,  197;  memorialist 
in  behalf  of  S.  C.  Canal  &  R.  R.  Co.,  217; 
Unionist  leader  in  Charleston  (1830), 
278,  mentioned,  281 

Ingham,   Samuel   D.,   mentioned,    287 
Irving,  Washington,  mentioned,  45 

Jack,  Gullah,  negro  leader  in  Vesey 
insurrection,    131 

Jackson,  General  Andrew,  regard  of, 
for  Arthur  P.  Hayne,  40;  schoolmate 
of  William  Smith  and  William  H.  Craw- 
ford, 137;  nominated  as  President,  by 
State  of  Pennsylvania,  169;  by  S.  C, 
177;  Hayne's  confidence  in  election  of, 
181;  Clay's  allusion  to,  in  letter  to 
Brook,  184;  mentioned,  193,  221,  222, 
229;  Parton's  story  of  conversation  be- 
tween Major  Lewis  and,  266;  basis 
of  Proclamation  of,  276;  letter  of,  to 
William  B.  Lewis,  280;  mentioned,  286; 
demands  explanation  from  Calhoun,  287; 
Calhoun's  allusion  to,  in  connection  with 
the  tariff,  291;  toasts  the  Union  at 
Washington  banquet,  299;  education 
of,  concerning  nullification,  300 ;  desirous 
of  concessions  to  the  South,  313;  vetoes 
Clay's  Bank  Bill,  316;  indisposition 
to  coerce  Hayne,  326;  official  author 
of  Proclamation,  336;  contemporaneous 
evidence  of  his  praise  of  Hayne's  reply 
to  Webster,  340;  mentioned,  347,  348; 
responsibility  of,  for  nullification,  357; 


INDEX 


547 


capture  of,  by  "Yankees,"  362;  Living- 
ston's influence  upon,  363;  Van  Buren's 
"terror  of,"  4.38;    mentioned,  448,  449, 

495,  496>   5r7 
Jackson,    Stonewall,    mentioned,     530 
Jameson,  J.  F.,  mentioned,  173 
Java   (British   frigate),    mentioned,    42 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  South  Carolina's  in- 
clination to    the   views    of    (1800),    21; 
Charles  Pinckney's  support  of,  25;  scorn- 
ful allusions  of  Courier  to,  26;    elected 
President   by    U.    S.    House   of    Repre- 
sentatives, through  withdrawal  of  Abra- 
ham   Nott    from    further    voting,     37; 
petition  to  Congress  for  relief  of  daugh- 
ter of,   202;    quoted  by  Hayne  as  au- 
thority for  nullification,  289;  mentioned, 
325,  340;    quoted  at  Nullification  Ball, 
358;      intimacy     of     Colonel     William 
Alston  with,  534 
Jervey,  James,  letter  of  John  Adams  to, 
as    member    of    committee    of     '"76" 
Association,  64;    memorialist  for  S.  C. 
Canal    &  R.  R.  Co.,  217 
Jews,    places   of  worship   at   Charleston, 

S.  C.  (1826),  200 
Johnson,  Colonel  John,  mentioned,  106 
Johnson,  David,  vice-president  of  S.  C 

Unionist   convention    (1832),    332 
Johnson,   John  Jr.,  mentioned,   281 
Johnson,    Judge    William,    mentioned, 
29;     opinion    in    case    of    Bulow    and 
Potter  vs.   City   Council,  94 
Johnson,  Rev.  John,  views  of,  concern- 
ing routes  to  the  West,  486 
Johnson,   R.   M.,   mentioned,    153,    209, 

465 
Jones,  Thomas  F.,  mentioned,  409 
July    4,   celebration    of,    at    Charleston, 
described,  26 

Kane,  Elias  Kent,  Senator,  mentioned, 

35o 
Keith,  Matthew  I.,  mentioned,  74,  281 
Keith,  Rev.  Isaac  Stockton,  9 
Kendall,      Amos,      Postmaster-General, 
letter  of   Alfred   Huger,  postmaster   at 
Charleston,    to,    379 
Kennedy,    Lionel,    mentioned,    73,    132 
King,   Mitchell,   director   of   L.   C.    & 
C.   R.   R.    Co.,   419;     mentioned,   453, 
489;    letter  of,  to  Hayne,  490;    defends 
direction  of  L.  C.   &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  506; 
motion  of,  at  meeting,  513;  mentioned, 
515;     frames    memorial    in    behalf    of 


L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  to  S.  C.  Legislature, 

529 
King,   Rufus,  Senator  from   New   York, 

mentioned,  153 
King,    Thomas    Butler,    Senator    from 

Georgia,  difference  of,  with  Calhoun  in 

Senate,  383;    tribute  of,  to  Hayne,  517 
Kirkland,   Mr.,   mentioned,   342 
Knox,   Vicessimus,   mentioned,   56 

Lafayette,  Marquis  de,  mentioned,  18, 

181,  182,  195 
Lance,  William,  mentioned,  43,  48,  70,  73, 

83,  393 
Lang,  Thomas,  commissioner  for  S.   C. 

Canal   &  R.  R.  Co.,  217 
Lawrence,    Captain,    mentioned,    as 
Law,   William,    commissioner  for  .  S.   C. 

Canal  &  R.  R.  Co.,  217 
Lecky,    William    Edward    Hartpole, 

mentioned,  59,  190 
Lee,     Henry,     Boston     memorialist     on 
tariff,  215;    nominated  by  S.  C.  (1832), 
for   Vice-President,    321 
Lee,  Robert  E.,  mentioned,  530 
Lee,  Thomas,    mentioned,    29,    106,  281 
Legare,  Hugh  Swinton,  speech  of,    in 
advocacy  of  State  Rights  in  S.  C.  Legis- 
lature    (1825),     188;      Unionist    leader 
at  Charleston   (1830),   278;    elected  to 
Legislature    on    Unionist    ticket,     281; 
resigns   seat   to   accept  election   as   At- 
torney-General of    State,  283;    William 
Lowndes    extolled    by,     284;     opposes 
and  defeats  H.   L.   Pinckney  for   Con- 
gress, 404;  mentioned,  446,  451,  461,  462, 
463;      defeat    of,    for    Congress,     469; 
revives    Southern   Review,    493 
Lehre,  Thomas  Jr.,  mentioned,  317 
Leigh,  Benjamin  Watkins,  commissioner 
from  Virginia  to  S.  C.  (1832),  345,  352 
Lewis,  Major  William  B.,  mentior  .d, 

280,  286 
Lewisburg,  district  of,  sentiment  of, 
concerning  Free  School  Act  (1814),  62 
Lewisohn,  Ludwig,  mentioned,  57 
Library  Societies  of  Charleston,  199 
Light  Infantry,  Captain  Miller's,  132 
LiNNE^EAN  Society  of  Paris,  Stephen 
Elliott  elected  honorary  member  of,  189 
Literary  and  Philosophical  Society, 

Stephen  Elliott  first  president  of,   71 
Littel,   Eliakim,  of  Pennsylvania,  letter 

of,  to  Hayne,  319 
Livingston,  Edward,  speech  of,  in  great 


548 


INDEX 


debate  alluded  to,  276;    influence  upon 
President  Jackson,   300;    partiality  for 
Hayne  of,  326;    argument  of,  in  great 
debate,  328;   framer  of  Jackson's  Proc- 
lamation,    329;     slip    of,    in     framing, 
336;   characterization  of  nullification  by, 
339;      strength     of,     as     an     adviser' 
363 
Logan,   George,  free  black  man,   men- 
tioned, 68,  69 
Longacre,  James  Barton,  draftsman  of 
best  known  picture  of  Robert  Y.  Hayne, 
149 
Longstreet,  A.  B.,  mentioned,  469 
Louisiana,  admission  of,  to  the  Union,  39 
Louisville,  Cincinnati  and    Charles- 
ton    Railroad,  453,  463;      see     also 
Charleston     and     Cincinnati     Railroad 
Lowndes,   Mr.,   mentioned,    515 
Lowndes,  William,  defeated  by  William 
Turpin    for    Legislature,    28;     member 
of  committee  to  draft  resolutions  (1809), 
in  support  of  Union,   Constitution  and 
rights  of  country,   29;     mentioned,    30, 
32;    enters  Congress,  37;    influence  of, 
in   Congress,    38,   39;     defeats   Stephen 
Elliott  for   Congress,   41;    against  em- 
bargo, 49;    estimate  of,  by  New   York 
Evening  Post,   51;     mentioned,    52,   66, 
71;     offered   Secretaryship   of   War   by 
President  Monroe,  84;    sketch  of  style, 
manner    and    influence  of,    by    fellow- 
member  of  Congress  from  Pennsylvania, 
101,    102;     universal   regard   for,    103; 
candidate  for  Speaker,  104;   mentioned, 
105,     106,     107,     123;      nominated    for 
President  of  U.  S.  by  S.  C.  Legislature, 
125;    letter  of  Hayne  to,    126;    resigns 
seat  in  Congress,  128;    mentioned,  129; 
death  of,  140;  mentioned,  143,  144,  151; 
chances  for  the  Presidency  considered, 
183;   tribute  to,  by  A.  P.  Butler  (1825)', 
188;      tribute    to,     by    Hugh     Swinton 
Legare  (1830),  284;  toast  to  the  memory 
of,     by     Charleston     Unionists,      290; 
Clay's  tribute  to,  in  U.  S.  Senate  (1832), 
303;     defended    from    attack    of    John 
Randolph    by    National    Gazette,    321; 
admiration  of  Richard  Henry  Wilde  for] 
366;    mentioned,  384;    mentioned,  445, 
Si5»  53° 
Lyceum  at  Sullivan's  Island  (1800),  19 
Lyman,  Mr.  William,  mentioned,  45 
Lynah,    James,    mentioned,    435 
Lyndhearst,    Lord,    mentioned,    366 


McBee,   Vardry,    mentioned,    506,    507; 
candidate  for  presidency  of   L.   C.    & 
C.  R.  R.  Co.,  526;    elected,  529 
McCrady,  Edward,  mentioned,  296 
McCullough       (McCulloch  ?),       argu- 
ment of  Attorney-General  Wirt,  in  case 
of  bank  against,  alluded  to,  146 
McDufpie,    George,    supports    amend- 
ment  to   U.   S.    Constitution   in   S.    C. 
Legislature,     78;      supports     repeal     of 
act  prohibiting   importation   of   negroes 
from  other  States  and  Territories,    80; 
attempts  of,   to  amend  bill  prohibiting 
introduction  of  free  persons  of  color  into 
State,    98;     mentioned,    154,    170;     at- 
tacked by  ex-Senator  Smith,   171;    dis- 
cussion of,  with  Trimble  of   Kentucky 
in  Congress,  193;  speech  of,  at  Charles- 
ton    (1831),     287;       mentioned,     291; 
consulted   by   Judge   Baldwin   concern- 
ing   tariff,    305;     appointed    by    nulli- 
fication  convention,    framer   of   address 
to  people  of  the  Union,  319;   mentioned, 
359i    362.    391.    393;     views   on    negro 
slavery    question,     394;      argument     in 
message  as    Governor  against   railroad, 
409,   411;    mentioned,   438;     Calhoun's 
opinion  of  character  of,  439 ;   mentioned, 
446,   484,   499,    53° 
McMaster,  John  Bach,  mentioned,  35, 

120,   178,   183,  220 
McNeill,    Major    William    G.,    chief 
engineer  of  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  men- 
tioned, 419,  424,  491,   505;   pall-bearer 
at  funeral  of  Robert  Y.  Hayne,   515 
Madeira  Wine,   price  of  at   Charleston 

(1791),  12 
Madison,  James,  28,  29,  40,  42,  66 
Magrath,  A.   G.,  mentioned,  405 
Magrath,    John,    mentioned,    405 
Magwood,    Simon,    mentioned,    29,    282 
Mangum,  Willie  Person,  Senator  from 
N.     C,     mentioned,     314;      nominated 
for  President  of  U.  S.  by  S.  C.  Legis- 
lature, 416 
Manigault,    Charles,    mentioned,    194, 
196,  221;   letter  of  Alfred  Huger  to,  381 
Manning,    Governor    Richard   I.,    ap- 
pointment   of    William    Harper    U.    S. 
Senator    by,     188;     signer    of    Unionist 
address    (1832),  297;    vice-president   of 
Unionist  convention,   S.  C.  (1832),  332; 
supports  abolition  resolution  of  H.   L. 
Pinckney  in  Congress,  399;    death  of, 
400 


INDEX 


549 


Mansfield,  E.  D.,  director  in  L.  C.  & 
C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419 

Marbois,  Francois,  Marquis  de,  men- 
tioned, 18 

Mareuil,  Madame    de,  mentioned,   195 

Marion,  district  of,  sentiment  of,  con- 
cerning Free  School  Act  (18 14),  62 

Marion,  General  Francis,  mentioned, 
288 

Marshall,  Mr.,  mentioned,  7 

Martin,  Robert,  memorialist  for  S.  C. 
&  Canal  R.  R.  Co.,  217 

Maryland,  mentioned,  23;  free  blacks 
of,  205 

Mason,  William,  mentioned,  16,  17,  19 

Massachusetts,  mentioned,  23,  24,  29, 
70,  71;  report  of  committee  of  Legis- 
lature on  resident  negroes  and  mulattoes, 
114 

Mechanics  of  Charleston,   201,   271 

Medical  Journal,  The,  published  at  Charles- 
ton,  S.C.   (1826),    200 

Memminger,  C.  G.,  mentioned,  278,  281, 
290;  framer  of  Unionist  Remonstrance 
and  Protest,  332,  mentioned,  415; 
argues  for  grant  of  banking  facilities 
to  railroad  by  N.  C.  Legislature,  417, 
418;  argues  for  divorce  of  bank  and 
State  in  S.  C.  Legislature,  446,  447, 
4535  opposes  joinder  of  presidency 
of  bank  and  railroad,  487 ;  sent  to  Ken- 
tucky to  obtain  grant  of  banking  facilities 
to  railroad,  492;  failure  of,  to  obtain 
grant  from  Kentucky  Legislature,  493; 
mentioned,  506,  507;  report  of,  on 
condition  of  finances  of  L.  C.  &  C. 
R.  R.  Co.,  508,  509,  510;  mentioned, 
512,  525;  chief  spokesman  of  party 
favoring    Gadsden    for   president,    526 

Merchants  Bonds,  Cheves's  speech  on, 

45 

Middleton,  Henry,  election  of,  to  Con- 
gress to  succeed  Langdon  Cheves,  60; 
defeats  Dr.  Moser  for  nomination,  and 
Crafts  for  election,  72;  point  made  by, 
against  adoption  of  ordinance  of  nulli- 
fication by,  319,  320;  vice-president 
Unionist    convention    (1832),    332 

Middleton,  Henry  A.,  mentioned,  506, 
512;  pall-bearer  at  funeral  of  Robert 
Y.  Hayne,  515 

Miller,  E.  L.,  designer  of  first  locomotive 
built  in  America,  121,  189 

Miller,  Governor  Stephen  D.,  men- 
tioned, 217;    defeats  William  Smith  for 


U.  S.  Senate,  283;    advises  nullification 
convention,    352;     resigns   from    U.    S. 
Senate,  374 
Mills's  Atlas,  mentioned,    118 
Mills,   Robert,   mentioned,    124,    199 
Mills,  Robert  G.,  director  in  L.  C.    & 

C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419 
Mission  Society,    at   Charleston  (1826), 

199 
Missouri,   mentioned,   99,    100,    113 
Missouri  (Question)   Compromise,  99, 

105,  245 
Mitchell,  Colonel,  mentioned,   7 
Mitchell,  James,  secretary  Brown  Fel- 
lowship Society,  69 
Monitor,   The,   mentioned,   56 
Monroe  Doctrine,  The,  192 
Monroe,   James,  66,  88,  213 
Morris,   Mr.,  mentioned,   7 
Morse,  actor,  mentioned,  46,  47 
Morse,  Samuel  F.  B.,  mentioned,  149 
Moser,    Doctor    Philip    B.,    author   of 
S.    C.    duelling   law,    47;     chairman   of 
committee     of     Legislature     reporting 
against  suspension  of  Free  School  Sys- 
tem,   62;    opponent  of   Henry   Middle- 
ton     for     nomination      by     Republican 
party  of   Charleston,  for  Congress,  72; 
mentioned,    197,    198,   320 
Moultrie,    General     William,     men- 
tioned, 8,  17,  220 
Murray,  James,  commissioner  for  S.  C. 
C.   &  R.  R.  Co.,  217 

Napier,  Thomas,  memorialist  for  S.  C. 
&  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  217 

Napoleon,  mentioned,  32 

Naudain,  Arnold,  Senator  from  Dela- 
ware, mentioned,  314 

Naval  Academy,   mentioned,    190,    209 

Neck  Rangers,  Captain  Martindale's, 
132 

Negrin,    J.   J.,   mentioned,    19 

Negroes,  in  S.  C,  6,  20;  sentences  for 
stealing  and  killing,  31;  protection  of, 
by  courts,  67,  70;  threat  of  insurrection 
of,  at  Charleston,  130;  regulation  with  re- 
gard to  entering  port  of,  179;  at  Charles- 
ton  (1826),   201 

Newberry,  district  of,  sentiment  of  con- 
cerning Free  School  Act  (1814), 
62 

New  England,  temper  of  (1811),  36;  vote 
of,  on  tariff  (1828),  219,  222;  tribute 
of     Hayne   to   the   democracy  of,    249; 


55° 


INDEX 


Webster's  defence  of  attitude  of  (1811), 

257 
New  York,  mentioned,  23;    blockade  of 
(1811),  32;  subscription  to  stock  of  U.  S. 
Bank  of,  70;  negro  population  of  (18 16), 

7i 
Niles's  Register,  mentioned,  182 
Ninety-Six,  district  of,  population,  6 
Nixon,  Mr.,  mentioned,  188 
Noble,    Patrick,    mentioned,    391,    407, 

439,  469,  473,  475,  480 
Northrop,  Amos  B.,  mentioned,  40 
Northrop,  Claudia,  mentioned,  40 
Norton,  Congressman  from  S.  C,  men- 
tioned, 461 
Nott,  Abraham,  raised  to  the  bench,  37; 
opinion  of,  in  case  of  State  vs.  Edwards, 
83;  opinion  of,  in  case  of  Bulow  and 
Potter  vs.  City  Council,  94,  95,  96,  97, 
115;  toast  to  the  memory  of,  at  Unionist 
banquet  (1831),  290;  mentioned,  295 
Nullification,  Massachusetts'  declara- 
tion of,  29,  36,  37;  by  Ohio,  115; 
proposed  by  Richmond  Enquirer  for 
Virginia,  116;  Webster's  argument 
against,  239;  Hayne's  argument  for, 
251;  Webster's  ridicule  of,  259;  Jack- 
son's letter  to  Major  Lewis  concerning, 
280;  failure  of  attempt  of,  in  S.  C.  (1830), 
285;  State  Rights  party  of  S.  C.  com- 
mitted to  (1831),  287;  cases  of,  cited  by 
Hayne,  288,  289;  Calhoun's  letter  on, 
291,  292,  293;  argument  of  S.  C. 
Unionists  against,  297,  298;  claim  of 
Jackson's  denunciation  of,  299;  Liv- 
ingston's education  of  Jackson  concern- 
ing, 300;  mentioned,  317,  318,  319,  320, 
321,  324,  326,  328,  332,  337,  339,  340, 
348,  349,  35°,  353,  355,  357,  358,  360, 
366,  373,  379 

O 'Donovan,  Michael,  mentioned,  28 
O'Driscoll,  Dennis,  mentioned,  82 
Ogilby,  Mr.,  mentioned,  515 
Olmstead  Case,  mentioned,  288 
O'Neall,  John  Belton,  mentioned,  45, 
50,    154,    188,    283;     discusses   Hayne's 
conduct  as  Governor  during  nullification, 
353;    opinion  as  to  settlement  between 
Unionists  and  nullifiers,  377;  letter  of,  to 
Hayne  concerning  Western  Railroad,  391 
Orangeburg  and  Beaufort,  population 

of  districts   of   (1790),    6 
Orleans  Territory,  discussion  over,  33, 
35 


Overseers,  use  of,  by  planters  in  S.  C, 
67 ;  by  Colonization  Society  in  Africa, 
203 

Panama  Mission,  190,  224,  393 
Parker,  Charles,  mentioned,  317 
Parker,  Daniel,  mentioned,  215 
Parker,  Thomas,  mentioned,   132 
Parton,    James,    biographer  of   Jackson, 

mentioned,  231 
Patent  Railway,  The,  mentioned,  121 
Peacock  (British  sloop  of  war)  mentioned, 

42 
Pendleton,    district    of,    sentiment    con- 
cerning Free  School  Act  (1814),   62 
Pennsylvania,  mentioned,  23;  Calhoun's 
claim    in    1822    of    support    from,    for 
Presidency,   128;    claimed  for  Jackson, 
1823,     by     Richmond     Enquirer,     145; 
nominates  Jackson  (1824)  for  President, 
Calhoun  for  Vice-President,   169;    both 
Senators   from,    vote   against    confirma- 
tion   of    Henry    Clay    as    Secretary    of 
State,  185 
Pension  System,  Hayne's  speech  against, 
272,    273;     mentioned,    301;     comment 
of  Alexandria  Gazette  on  Hayne's  speech 
against,  315 
Pepoon  vs.  Clarke,  case  of,  67,  70 
Peronneau,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  William 

Hayne,  16 
Petigru,  J.  L.,  memoir  of,  83;  affair 
between  Hunt  and,  197;  memorialist 
for  S.  C.  Canal  &  R.  R.  Co.,  216,  217; 
Unionist  leader  at  Charleston  (1830), 
278;  defeated  for  State  Senate,  281; 
mentioned,  282 ;  toasts  memory  of 
Judge  Nott,  290;  letter  of,  295;  signer 
of  Unionist  address  (1832),  297;  men- 
tioned, 317;  letter  of,  318,  319;  framer 
of  Unionist  Remonstrance  and  Protest, 
(1832),  332;  suggested  for  Intendant  of 
Charleston,  378;  opposes  support  of 
H.  L.  Pinckney  by  Unionists,  404; 
mentioned,  409,  416,  431;  criticism  of 
Calhoun  by,  432,  433;  mistake  con- 
cerning public  opinion  by,  439;  opposes 
Calhoun's  financial  views  in  S.  C. 
Legislature,  446,  447;  mentioned,  450; 
reflections  of,  concerning  conflagration 
at  Charleston  (1838),  460;  mentioned, 
461;  comments  of,  on  death  of  Hayne, 
5i6 
Petrie,  George,  Revolutionary  soldier, 
Hayne's  interest  in,  145 


INDEX 


551 


Phillips,  Professor  Ulrich  B.,  criticism 
of  Hayne's  address  as  president  of 
Knoxville  convention  by,  402,  403 

Pickens,    F.    W.,    mentioned,    373 

Pickering,  Timothy,  mentioned,  ^^,  176 

Pinckney,  Charles,  influence  of,  on 
State  and  nation,  2;  president  of  con- 
vention framing  Constitution  for  S.  C. 
(1790),  3;  defender  of  Constitution  of 
U.  S.  in  S.  C.  convention  called  to  ratify, 
4;  reelected  Governor  (1791),  7;  house 
of,  in  Charleston  described,  10;  third 
election  of,  as  Governor,  18;  speech  in 
U.  S.  Senate  against  appointment  of 
Chief  Justice  as  envoy  to  France, 
alluded  to,  21;  extracts  from  speech 
for  ratification  of  Constitution  of  U.  S., 
21,  22,  23,  24;  objects  to  multiplica- 
tion of  office  in  individual,  25;  Courier's 
attack  upon,  26;  Minister  to  Spain,  27; 
fourth  term  as  Governor,  28;  chairman 
of  joint  meeting  of  Charleston  Re- 
publicans and  Federalists  (1809)  to 
support  Union  Constitution  and  rights 
of  country,  29;  views  of,  on  Foreign 
Trade  questioned  at  Charleston,  30; 
views  of  Union  by,  contrasted  with 
view  of  Josiah  Quincy,  34;  men- 
tioned, 47,  48,  59,  60;  candidate  for 
Congress,  75;  charges  against,  76,  77; 
speech  on  Missouri  Question,  99;  men- 
tioned, 117,  118,  176;  death  of,  279; 
mentioned,  294,  329,  502;  loss  of  papers 
of,  alluded  to,  530 

Pinckney,  Charles  Cotesworth,  deputy 
from  S.  C.  to  Constitutional  Convention 
(1787),  2;  meeting  with  Washington  of, 
at  Haddrels  Point  (1791),  8;  Presidential 
candidate  of  Federal  party  against 
Jefferson,  27;  against  Madison,  28; 
induces  Cincinnati  Society  of  S.  C.  to 
oppose  duelling,  47;    death  of,  279 

Pinckney,  Charles  Cotesworth,  Jr., 
mentioned,  180,  185 

Pinckney,  Colonel  Thomas,  mentioned, 
281 

Pinckney,  Frances  Henrietta,  48 

Pinckney,  Governor  Thomas,  men- 
tioned, 2,  28;  member  of  joint  com- 
mittee at  Charleston  of  Republicans  and 
Federalists  (1809),  29;  views  of,  con- 
cerning negro  mechanics,  130,  198; 
desire  of,  to  see  Andrew  Jackson  elected 
President,  222;  death  of,  279 

Pinckney,   H.   L.,   valedictorian  of  class 


at  S.  C.  college,  47;  elected  to  S.  C. 
Legislature,  72;  advocates  election  of 
Robert  Y.  Hayne  to  U.  S.  Senate,  139; 
moves  indorsement  of  Calhoun  for 
President  by  S.  C.  Legislature  (1823), 
145;  mentioned,  222;  leader  of  State 
Rights  party  at  Charleston  (1830),  278; 
value  of  support  of,  to  Calhoun,  279; 
defeated  for  Intendant  of  Charleston 
by  J.  R.  Pringle,  Unionist  candidate, 
281;  elected  to  Legislature  and  made 
Speaker,  282;  defeats  J.  R.  Pringle 
for  Intendancy,  295;  defeats  H.  A.  De 
Saussure  for  Intendancy,  317;  asserts 
his  independence  in  Congress,  396,  397; 
motion  of,  concerning  abolition  petition, 
398,  399;  struggle  of,  to  return  to  Con- 
gress, 404;  Hayne's  statement  con- 
cerning, 405;  irritation  at  Charleston 
over  defeat  of,  for  Congress,  420; 
dinner  to,  421;  ex-Senator  Smith's 
commendation     of,     423;      mentioned, 

43°.  435,  45 J.  463 

Pitt,  mentioned,  4 

Poindexter,  George,  from  Mississippi 
Territory  calls  Quincy  to  order  in  House 
of  Representatives  for  mentioning  seces- 
sion in  debate,  33 

Poinsett,  Joel  R.,  appointed  chairman 
committee  of  Elections,  S.  C.  Legisla- 
ture by  Speaker  Hayne,  77;  head  of 
Board  of  Internal  Improvements  of 
State,  117;  member  of  second  court, 
appointed  to  try  negro  insurrectionists 
at  Charleston,  132;  as  member  of 
Congress  attacked  by  ex-Senator  Smith, 
171;  Unionist  leader  at  Charleston 
(1830),  278;  elected  as  Unionist  to  S.  C. 
Legislature  (1830),  281;  mentioned, 
387,  461,  475 

Poole  vs.  Perritt,  case  of,  83 

Population  of  South  Carolina,  6,  29 

Porcher,    F.    Y.,    mentioned,    317 

Porter,  Mr.,  mentioned,  188 

Porter,  B.  F.,  tribute  of,  to  Hayne,  517 

Poyas,  Peter,  negro  insurrectionist  at 
Charleston,  131,  133 

Presbyterians,  places  of  worship  in 
Charleston   (1826),   200 

Preston,  W.  C,  graduate  of  S.  C.  college, 
47;  State  Rights  leader,  283;  un- 
successful motion  of,  to  call  nullification 
convention  (1830),  285;  account  of 
Hayne's  resignation  from  U.  S.  Senate 
I        and    inaugural    as    Governor    by,    322, 


552 


INDEX 


323;  comment  of,  on  Hayne's  counter 
proclamation,  331;  chairman  of  com- 
mittee on  Federal  Relations  S.  C.  Legis- 
lature, 341 ;  elected  to  U.  S.  Senate,  374; 
supports  railroad  to  the  West,  388;  re- 
elected to  U.  S.  Senate,  416;  dinner 
to,  at  Charleston,  420;  differs  with 
Calhoun  on  banking  question,  431,  432, 
445;  mentioned,  446,  451,  461,  462, 
463;  revives  Southern  Review  together 
with  Hayne  and  Legare,  493 

Primogeniture,  abolition  of,  in  S.  C,  1; 
discussed  in  speech  of  Charles  Pinckney, 
advocating  ratification  of  Constitution 
of   U.   S.,    22 

Proclamation  of  President  Jackson, 
concerning  nullification,  276,  326,  327, 
329,  33°,  331,  333,  335,  33°,  338,  339, 
34i,  343,  344 

Purcell,  Jack,  negro  insurrectionist  at 
Charleston,   133,   185 

Purcell,  Rev.  Doctor,  mentioned,  20 

Quakers,  places  of  worship  in  Charleston 

(1826),  200 
Quince  Street,  in  Charleston,  17 
Quincy,  town  of,  mentioned,   120 
Quincy,     Josiah,     secession     speech     in 
Congress  (181 1),  33;    successful  appeal 
of,  from  ruling  of  Speaker  against,  34; 
argument    against    declaration    of    war 
(1812),  35;    argument  on  constitutional 
compact,    38;     scornful   allusion   of,    to 
flag,  39 ;   opposition  to  increase  of  army, 
43;    mentioned,  295;    responsibility  of, 
for  nullification,  357 

Rambouillet  Decrees,   mentioned,   32 
Ramsay,  Doctor  David,  mentioned,  29,  64 
Ramsay,  J.  G.  M.,  director  of  L.  C.    & 

C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419 
Ramsay,  John,  State  Rights  resolutions  of, 

217 
Ramsay  Society,  mentioned,   199 
Randolph,    John,    mentioned,    43,    100, 

i°5,  321 
Ravenel,  D.,  mentioned,  72 
Read,  Harleston,  mentioned,  283 
Remonstrance  and  Protest  of  Union 

Party  in  S.  C,  332 
Revenue    Collection  Bill,    349,    350, 

35 it  353,  35°,  452»  453,  see  a^so  Force 
Bill 
Revolutionary  Society  of  Charleston, 
54 


Rhett,  Albert,  leads  fight  in  S.  C. 
Legislature  in  favor  of  divorce  of  bank 
and  State,  446 

Rhett  (Smith),  R.  Barnwell,  283; 
declares  nullification  settlement  no 
triumph,  353;  supports  Calhoun's 
views  on  banking,  432;  Petigru's 
estimate  of,  433 ;  resolution  of,  concern- 
ing abolition  petitions,  451,  452;  men- 
tioned, 463 

Rhode  Island,  mentioned,  24,  209,  298 

Rhodes,  J.  F.,  mentioned,  292 

Richardson,   John  S.,   mentioned,   106 

Richardson,  W.  H.,  director  in  L.  C.  & 
C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419 

Rives,  William  Cabell,  Senator  from 
Virginia,    mentioned,    349 

Roberts,  Benjamin,  director  of  L.  C.  & 
C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419 

Robinson,  free  black  man,  mentioned,  69 

Robinson,  John,  mentioned,  217,  317 

Robinson,  John  M.,  Senator  from 
Illinois,  mentioned,  314 

Robbins,  Ashur,  Senator  from  Rhode 
Island,   mentioned,   209 

Roman  Catholics,  places  of  worship  in 
Charleston  (1826),   200 

Ruggles,  Benjamin,  Senator  from  Ohio, 
mentioned,  314 

Rush,  Benjamin,  mentioned,  4 

Rush,  Richard,  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury,  mentioned,    195,   263 

Russia,  John  Quincy  Adams  appointed 
Minister   to,    29 

Rutledge,  Frederick,  pall-bearer  of 
Robert  Y.  Hayne,  515 

Rutledge,  John,  son  of  Dictator,  men- 
tioned,  41 

Saint  Michael's  Church,  mentioned, 
12,  20,  54 

Saint  Philip's  Church,  mentioned,  12, 
54,   200;    destroyed  by  fire,   378 

Santee  Canal,  mentioned,  20 

Sass,    Mr.,    mentioned,    281 

Saucy  Jack,  The,  privateer  built  at  Charles- 
ton,   41,    47 

Schmidt,  J.  W.,  mentioned,  281 

Scientific  Expedition  to  the  South 
Seas,   mentioned,    226 

Scott,  engineer  employed  by  L.  C.  & 
C.  R.  R.  Co.,  505 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  meeting  at  Charles- 
ton on  occasion  of  death  of,  321 

Seabrook,  W.  B.,  mentioned,  217,  320 


INDEX 


553 


Secession,  33,  34,  319,  335,  530 

Sergeant,  John,  member  of  Congress 
from  Pennsylvania,  99,  100,  103, 
191 

Shannon,  Charles  J.,  commissioner  for 
S.  C.  Canal  &  R.  R.  Co.,  217 

Shaw,  Lemuel,  Boston  memorialist  on 
tariff,   214 

Sheffey,  Daniel,  member  of  Congress 
from  Virginia,  mentioned,  36 

Shelbourne,  British  Minister,  men- 
tioned, 4 

Shipherd,  R.  D.,  Boston  memorialist 
on  tariff,  215 

Shoemaker,   John,   mentioned,   281 

Shrewsbury,  locality  in  England  from 
which  Hayne  family  emigrated,    15 

Shropshire,  county  in  England  from 
which   Hayne  family  emigrated,    15 

Shubrick,  John  Templar,  Lieutenant 
distinguished  for  gallant  conduct  in 
action  on  Constitution,  Java,  and 
Hornet,  43 

Silsbee,  Nathaniel,  Senator  from  Mas- 
sachusetts, mentioned,  124,  214,  219, 
250,  35° 

Silsby,  Enoch,  Boston  memorialist  on 
tariff,  215 

Simms,  William  Gilmore,  mentioned, 
280,  290;  questions  Webster's  reasons 
for  failing  to  vote  on  Clay's  tariff  reso- 
lution (1832),  314;  publication  of  first 
novel  of,  375 

Simons,   Keating,  mentioned,   106,   288 

Simons,  K.  L.,  member  of  committee 
joint  Republican  and  Federal  meeting 
at  Charleston  (1809),  29;  mentioned, 
39,  40,  43,  54;  appointed  chairman 
Judiciary  committee  S.  C.  Legislature 
by  Speaker  Hayne,  77 ;  supports  amend- 
ment of  U.  S.  Constitution,  78;  opposes 
repeal  of  act  prohibiting  importation  of 
negroes  from  other  States  and  Territories, 
80;    mentioned,  91,  93,  393 

Simkins,  Eldred,  mentioned,   188 

Simpson,  John  W.,  director  L.  C.  &  C. 
R.  R.  Co.,  419 

Slavery,  20,  31,  67,  68,  69,  70,  71,  73,  75, 
77,  78,  79.  8o,  98,  99,  100,  102,  103,  105, 
117,  118,  119,  130,  134,  135,  136,  168, 
179,  183,  184,  185,  191,  198,  201,  205, 
208,  228,  245,  246,  380,  388,  394,  398, 
399.  433,  436,  437,  440,  451,  452,  459, 
5oo,    501,    511,    533,    534 

Smith,   Bishop  Robert,  mentioned,  25 


Smith,  Doctor  John,  mentioned,  16,  19, 
27 

Smith,   James  S.,  mentioned,   462 

Smith,  R.  Barnwell,  see  R.  Barnwell 
Rhett 

Smith,  Professor  C.  Alphonso,  men- 
tioned, 375 

Smith,  Samuel,  member  of  Congress 
from  Maryland,  candidate  for  Speaker 
U.  S.  House  of  Representatives,  104; 
compliments  Hayne  on  speech  in  Senate 
on  naval  affairs,  209;  attacked  by  Clay 
for  counselling  concessions  to  the  South 
(1832),  312 

Smith,   Thomas  Rhett,   mentioned,   60, 

Smith,  William  Loughton,  member  of 
joint  Republican  and  Federal  meeting 
at  Charleston   (1809),    29 

Smith,  William,  sentences  of  as  Judge 
at  May  sessions  (1809),  30;  elected  to 
U.  S.  Senate,  71;  mentioned,  84;  Cal- 
houn's opinion  of,  107;  birth  and  early 
years  of,  137;  political  views  of,  138; 
candidacy  for  reelection  to  Senate  and 
defeat  of,  142,  143;  controversy  of, 
with  Hayne,  169,  170,  171,  172,  173; 
mentioned,  174;  advocate  of  State 
Rights  (1825),  186;  reelection  to  U.  S. 
Senate  of,  193;  compared  with  Hayne, 
202;  mentioned,  204;  attacks  Hayne's 
bill  for  Naval  Academy,  209;  intro- 
duces protest  of  S.  C.  against  protecting 
duties,  223;  participation  of,  in  great 
debate,  270;  toasted  at  Hayne-Drayton 
dinner,  280;  defeated  by  S.  D.  Miller, 
for  U.  S.  Senate,  283;  signer  of  Unionist 
address  (1832),  297;  declines  appoint- 
ment to  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  422 ;  com- 
mends position  of  H.  L.  Pinckney 
concerning  abolition  resolutions,  423  ; 
mentioned,   461 

Smyth,  Alexander,  member  of  Congress 
from  Virginia,  mentioned,  99 

South  Carolina,  ratification  of  Consti 
tution  of  U.  S.  by,  3;  act  appointing 
deputies  to  constitutional  convention 
alluded  to,  4;  population  of  (1790),  6; 
constitution  of  General  Assembly  (1790), 
7;  exports  of  (1816),  70;  material  con- 
dition of  (1616),  84;  pride  of  in  the 
Union  (1824),  173;  regulations  with 
regard  to  negroes  entering  ports  of,  178; 
change  of  political  sentiment  in,  186; 
effect  of   tariff   (1828),   on   temper   of, 


554 


INDEX 


220;     material    and   political    condition 
of  (1830),   268,   269;    trend  of,  toward 
nullification,  297 
South  Carolina  Canal  and  Railroad, 
memorial   of   citizens  of  Charleston   to 
Legislature  of  State  concerning  (1827), 
216,    217;     mentioned,    258,    420;     see 
Charleston  and  Hamburg  Railroad 
South  Carolina  College,  47 
South   Carolina  Homespun  Company, 

74 
South    Carolina    Railroad,    120,    486 
South  Western  Bank,  458,  459,  465,  467, 

476,  481,  487,  490,  492 
Southern    Intelligencer,    200 
Southern   Patriot,    The,  200 
Southern  Review,  The,  revival  of,  493 
Starr,    Edwin  P.,    Secretary  of  meeting 
called  in  behalf  of  S.  C.  Canal  &  R.  R. 
Co.,  216 
State  vs.   John  Edwards,   case  of,   82 
State   Rights,   Calhoun's   early  position 
with  regard  to,    173;     mentioned,    177; 
position   of   ex-Senator    William    Smith 
(1825),    186;     position   of   other    South 
Carolinians,   187,   188,  279;    mentioned, 
281,   290,   292,   299,  367,   373,  416,  450 
Sumter,     General     Thomas,     opposes 
ratification  of  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  3;    mentioned,  4,  137,  145,  174; 
against  calling  a  convention   to   nullify 
(1830),     284;      for    convention    (1832), 
296;   views  of,  considered,  298 
Swett,   Samuel,   Boston  memorialist  on 
tariff,  215 

Talleyrand,  Charles,  Due  de,  men- 
tioned, 18 

Tariff,  99,  105,  106,  107,  108,  109,  no, 
in,  112,  147,  153,  154,  155,  156,  157, 
158,  159,  160,  161,  162,  163,  164,  165, 
166,  '167,  168,  187,  212,  214,  219,  220, 
221,  223,  238,  247,  248,  249,  256,  262, 
295,  3o4,  3!4,  3i5,  3i9»  321,  325,  326, 
332,  343.  35°,  353,  355.  356,  3§6,  437. 
5oi 

Taylor,  James,  director  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R. 
Co.,  419 

Taylor,  John,  Senator  from  Virginia, 
mentioned,   153 

Taylor,  Colonel  John,  mentioned,  90, 
i37 

Taylor,  Thomas,  president  of  Unionist 
Convention   (1832),  332 

Taylor,  Walter,  mentioned,  47 


Tazewell,  L.  W.,  Senator  from  Virginia, 
opposes  proposition  to  blockade  Cuba, 
184;  mentioned,  202,  224,  225,  226, 
229,  351 

Test  Oath,  372,  376 

Thompson,  Waddy,  criticism  of  Hayne 
by,  431;  mentioned,  451,  461,  462,  464, 
465 

Tibbatts,  J.  W.,  director  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R. 
Co.,  419 

Tivoli  Gardens,  location  of,  at  Charles- 
ton, 19 

Tocqueville,  Alexis  De,  mentioned,  59, 
356 

Tod,    Mr.,    mentioned,  160 

Toomer,  J.  W.,  mentioned,  42,  43,  54,  60 

Touhey,  Martin,  mentioned,   19,   83 

Touhey,  Michael,  mentioned,   19,  83 

Tract  Societies,  mentioned  at  Charles- 
ton (1826),  199 

Trimble,  member  of  Congress  from 
Kentucky,   mentioned,  193 

Trott  Street,  mentioned,  17 

Troup,  George  McIntosh,  Senator  from 
Georgia,  mentioned,  350 

Tucker,  Henry  St.  George,  member  of 
Congress  from  Virginia,  mentioned,  102 

Tucker,  Starling,  vice-president  Union- 
ist convention  (1832),  332 

Turnbull,  Robert  J.,  mentioned,  132, 
3*9.  360,  367 

Turpin,  William,  mentioned,  28 

Tyler,  John,  mentioned,  416,  464 

Unionists  of  South  Carolina,  282,  290, 
295,  297,  315,  317,  318,  320,  332,  342, 
354,  361,  372,  376,  377,  379.  381,  397. 
400,  404 

Unitarians,  places  of  worship  at  Charles- 
ton (1826),  mentioned,  200 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  mentioned,  153, 
210;  rejection  of,  by  U.  S.  Senate  as 
Minister  to  England,  314;  mentioned, 
362,  363,  399;  elected  President,  416; 
proclamation  of,  convening  extra  session 
of  Congress,  422;  mentioned,  435,  437, 
438;  Hayne's  letter  to  the  Courier  in 
reference  to  the  rejection  of,  as  Minister 
to  England,  494,  495,  496 

Vander   Horst,   Arnoldus,    mentioned, 

7.  ",  i7,  25 
Van  Deventer,  Christopher,  mentioned, 

286,  354 
Varnum,  Joseph  B.,  ruling  of,  as  Speaker 


INDEX 


555 


of  U.  S.  House  of  Representatives  (1811) 
on  Poindexter's  point  of  order  against 
Quincy,  33 

Verplank,  Gulian  Cromelin,  introduces 
bill  to  reduce  duties  in  U.  S.  House  of 
Representatives  (1833),  352 

Vesey,  Denmark,  leader  of  negro  insur- 
rectionists at  Charleston  (1822),  123, 
129,  130,  132,  133,  185,  384 

Walker's  reading  room  at  Charleston 
(1826),  200 

Walsh's  American  Register,  84 

Ward,  John,  mentioned,  29 

Warren,  mentioned,  78 

Washington,  George,  visit  of,  to 
Charleston,  7,  10,  n 

Washington,  William,  mentioned,  217 

Webster,  Daniel,  mentioned,  35,  43; 
resolutions  of,  concerning  the  Berlin 
and  Milan  Decrees,  48;  mentioned,  50; 
New  York  Evening  Post's  estimate  of, 
51;  opposes  tariff  of  1816,  112;  men- 
tioned, 124;  struggle  with  Clay  over 
tariff  of  (1824),  154,  155,  156;  men- 
tioned, 192,  194;  champion  of  Adams's 
administration  in  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, 210;  Senator  from  Massa- 
chusetts, 214;  resolution  of,  in  Senate 
concerning  Panama  Mission,  224; 
failure  of,  to  procure  printing  of  docu- 
ments concerning  Mission,  225;  esti- 
mate of,  by  John  Quincy  Adams,  227; 
influence  of,  in  Senate,  230;  occasion  of 
debate  of,  with  Hayne  according  to 
Parton  and  according  to  Benton,  231; 
John  Quincy  Adams's  praise  of  speech 
of,  233;  evidences  of  premeditation  of, 
235;  misstatements  of,  237;  confidence 
of,  239;  advantages  of,  240;  mentioned, 
241,  242,  243,  244,  245,  247,  25°,  251; 
rejoinder  of,  to  Hayne's  reply,  253 ;  men- 
tioned, 260;  his  criticism  of  Hayne's 
argument  on  compact  considered,  263; 
Paul  Hamilton  Hayne's  opinion  of  high 
literary  quality  of  speech  of,  264;  de- 
scribed by  Philadelphia  Gazette,  265, 
266;  estimate  of,  in  Charleston,  269; 
mentioned,  272,  274,  292,  299,  300,  301; 
supplanted  by  Clay  as  leader  in  Senate, 
302;  mentioned,  304,  306;  opposes  ap- 
pointment of  Van  Buren  as  Minister  to 
England,  314;  mentioned,  315;  sup- 
ports attempt  of  Clay  to  pass  Bank  Bill 


over  presidential  veto,  316;  argument 
of,  in  reply  to  Hayne's  constitutional 
argument  criticised  by  Livingston,  328; 
mentioned,  347 ;  member  of  select  com- 
mittee on  Compromise  Bill  (1833),  sup- 
ports Calhoun  against  Clay's  amend- 
ment to  Compromise  Bill,  350;  replies  to 
Clay's  taunt,  351;    mentioned  437,  521 

Wesleyan  Journal,  published  at  Charleston 
(1826),  200 

Wheelwright,  Lot,  Boston  memorialist 
on  tariff,  215 

White,  John  Blake,  mentioned,  63,  199 

White,  Judge  Hugh  L.,  mentioned,  323 

Wickliffe,  Robert,  director  in  L.  C.  & 
C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419 

Wilde,  Richard  Henry,  ridicule  of 
Compromise  Bill  by,  in  Congress,  351; 
lines  quoted  by,  on  idolatry,  366 

Wilkins,  William,  Senator  from  Penn- 
sylvania, mentioned,  349 

Williams,  inventor  of  patent  railway,  122 

Williams,  Captain,  engineer  employed 
by  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  406,  413,  419 

Williams,  D.  R.,  mentioned,  39,  43,  50 

Williams,  John  S.,  mentioned,  389; 
director  L.  C.  &  C.  R.  R.  Co.,  419; 
mentioned,  472,  482 

Wilmington,  Roanoke  and  Charleston 
Railroad,  503 

Wilson,  Jehu,  opponent  of  ratification 
of  U.  S.  Constitution  by  S.  C,  4 

Wilson,  Governor  John  Lyde,  men- 
tioned, 178,  180,  282 

Wilson,  Professor  Woodrow,  men- 
tioned, 112 

Winslow,  Isaac,  Boston  memorialist  on 
tariff,  215 

Wirt,  William  Henry,  Attorney- General 
U.  S.,  mentioned,  146 

Wise,  Henry  A.,  praised  by  Calhoun,  398; 
attacks  H.  L.  Pinckney,  399;  men- 
tioned, 452 

Witherspoon,  John  D.,  mentioned,  78,  80 

Yancey,  Benjamin  F.,  mentioned,  41,  48 
Yankees,  222,  357,  360,  361,  362,  363 
Yeadon,  Richard,  editor  Courier,  sup- 
ports H.  L.  Pinckney  for  Congress,  404 ; 
mentioned,  446,  463 
Young,  Dr.  Robert,  mentioned,  16 
Young,  W.  P.,  mentioned,  18 

Zimmerman,  mentioned,  56 


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